CONSERVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS: A REVIEW

Abstract

Ayurveda [traditional medicine of India as per WHO], the holistic science of medicine, as practised and utilized by Indians at large since centuries is now being globally accepted which has increased the demand for medicinal plants. Majority of population in the developing countries like India depends on the tradi-tional systems of medicine like Ayurveda for their primary healthcare needs. Increasing demand of medic-inal plants leads to irrational cutting deforestation leading to depletion of the wild resources. Moreover, the natural and manmade calamities lead to further depletion of medicinal plant diversity. Conservation aims at supporting sustainable development by wing the biological resources in ways that don’t deplete the world’s variety of species or destroy their ecosystems. It involves measures such as collection, propagation, evalua-tion, disease identification and elimination, storage and distribution. Conservation of medicinal plants and their genetic resources can be undertaken by in-situ and ex-situ conservation. Ex-situ conservation involves conservation of medium plants outside their natural habitat used to safeguard them from destruction, re-placement or deterioration. Ex-situ conservation includes procedure like seed storage, DNA storage, field gene banks and botanical gardens etc