PRESENT SCENARIO OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS IN INDIA

摘要

The vast diversity of medicinal and aromatic plants has led to the evolution of traditional system of medicine as Ayurvedic, Tibetan, Siddha and Yunani. Most of the plants used in traditional system are exploited unscientifically from wild and only the aborigines have cultivated a few of them. Thus there is a real danger of genetic erosion. The Red Data Book of India has 427 entries on endangered species of which 28 are considered extinct, 124 endangered, 81 vulnerable, 100 rare and 34 insufficientlyknown. These species need detailed studies on their population structure, breeding behaviour and consequently require protection of their habitat for in. situ conservation which in turn calls for the need for collection, conservation, research in propagation, cultivation as well as investigations into possible modifications in the active ingredients. Many of the natural products in plants of the medicinal value give us new sources of drug which have been used effectively for centuries as traditional medicine. Western scientists believe that less than half the active principle to be found in plants that could have benefited mankind have not yet been identified and that by studying the traditional herbal medicine of the past and temporary tribal medicine, many more useful species can be identified and analyzed. There are many compounds used in medicine today whose original derivatives are of plant origin. Amongst the active principles that have been isolated from the herbs, those most useful in medicine includes essential oils, terpenes, phenols, alkaloids, flavonoides, tannins, glycosides and amines. Plants are the sources of poisons, addictive drugs and hallucinogens. These have importance in human medicine.