Smuggling of medicinal plants rampant in Joida

Karwar, June 25, DHNS:

Even as the controversy on the Unesco tag for the Western Ghats continues, rich flora from the forest regions continues to be plundered for gain.

Indian medicinal plants are in great demand in the international market. Varieties like the saptarangi plants (Salacia Reticulate) and guvada (Mappia Foetida) medicinal plants are abundantly available in the forests of Khanapur, Bheemgad, Talewadi, Aamgaon Holda regions of Belgaum district. Medicinal plants are found in abundance at Kuveshi, Mayare, Castle Rock and Anamod forest regions near Diggi in Joida taluk. Spices like Dalchini Moggu (cinnamon buds) and its leaves are also smuggled out. The Forest officers had seized a lorry transporting guvada leaves about three months ago near Jagalpet. The department has to its credit a few such cases.  The medicine prepared from guvada leaves is useful in treating cancer and liver conditions and is in great demand in China and Japan, according to a forest officer. Innocent people residing in the forests of the border areas are roped in for smuggling. Dearth of staff in the Forest department is a major setback in tackling illegal activities. Since most of the staff are aged around 50, they are unable to conduct surprise raids. A team of enthusiastic youth is required in the department to tackle the menace, says the forest officer. Full Story

Poor missing out on moringa seeds' water-purifying powers

Carol Campbell

24 March 2010 | EN

Moringa oleifera seeds can purify water

EcoPort Picture Databank

[OUDTSHOORN] Seeds from a tree that grows widely across the developing world could play a key role in water purification — but there is lack of awareness about this application despite a long indigenous history, say researchers.

The Moringa tree — Moringa oleifera — is native to North India but is also found in Indonesia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and is used in many communities mostly for food and folk medicine.

But adding crushed Moringa seeds to water can cut the time taken for bacteria and solids to settle from a full day to just one hour, and has potential for preventing diarrhoea, according to Michael Lea of Clearinghouse, a Canadian organisation that investigates low-cost water purification technologies.

Lea has published a step-by-step procedure online that shows how the seeds can be crushed to produce a natural flocculant — a substance that aggregates suspended particles.

He hopes that making the technique freely available in this way will facilitate dissemination to those who need it the most — the role of the seeds in purification has been known for centuries but use has been limited.

Writing in Current Protocols in Microbiology, he said that the seeds can provide a low-cost, accessible purification method for poor communities where diarrhoea caused by water-borne bacteria is the biggest killer of children aged five and under.

Lea noted that the seeds "should not be regarded as a panacea for reducing the high incidence of waterborne diseases" — an additional disinfection process is recommended — but can make a valuable contribution to disease reduction.

"Parts of the world have mobile phone and Internet services but no food and potable water," Lea told SciDev.Net. "These trees are indigenous so the solution is in people's backyards. What is required now is knowledge dissemination.

"M. oleifera is the only indigenous treatment technology that addresses poverty and nutrition while also providing potable water."

Lea said that superstition has sometimes limited its use. For instance, in one area of Africa, more than three Moringa trees in a backyard is seen as a source of misfortune that brings poverty and death.

Vallantino Emongor, a M. oleifera expert at the University of Botswana, said: "What is exciting is that this tree is drought resistant and is accessible throughout Africa and India. Communities need to learn what the seeds can do."

Some countries, including Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, have formed associations to facilitate this.

The Clearinghouse research was published last month (18 February).

Link to full paper in Current Protocols in Microbiology

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93% of wild medicinal plants in endangered list: Study

NEW DELHI: Ninety three per cent of wild medicinal plants used for making ayurvedic medicines in the country are endangered and the government is trying to relocate them from their usual habitat to protect them.

The threat to the plants came to the fore in an assessment exercise in different states carried out by the Botanical Survey of India.

The assessments were done for a total of 359 prioritized wild medicinal plant species. Out of this, 335 have been assigned Red List status ranging from critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable to near-threatened.

In addition, a total of 15 such species recorded in trade have been found threatened, officials in the health ministry's Ayush department said.

Some of the rare plants reported to be threatened, have been relocated during the last decade, including Utleria Salicifolia and Hydnocarpus Pentandra in Western Ghats, Gymnocladus Assamicus and Begonia Tessaricarpa from Arunachal Pradesh and Agapetes Smithiana in Sikkim.

The assessments have involved conducting Conservation Assessment and Management Prioritisation using International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List Categories.

The officials said the medicinal plant resources in the country are threatened by over exploitation to meet the demand of herbal industries.

As per the information received from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, about 95 per cent of such plants are harvested from the wild, primarily from forests.

The National Medicinal Plants Board constituted in November 2000, has been implementing a Central sector scheme for development and cultivation of medicinal plants since 2000-01.

This scheme was revised and renamed as "Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants" during 2008-09.

States forest departments have been given assistance for protection and propagation of such endangered species, especially used by the herbal industries.

Projects for setting up of 29 Medicinal Plants Conservation Areas (MPCAs) have also been implemented in the states covering mainly the medicinal plants viz Asoka, Guggal and Dashmool varieties.

The scheme is being implemented with an outlay of Rs 321.30 crore during the 11th Plan.

In addition, a new "Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Mission on Medicinal Plants" with a total outlay of Rs 630 crore is being implemented since 2008-09 by National Medicinal Plants Board. A total of 24 states have been covered under the scheme.

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Scientists trying to identify ’sanjivani’ herb

LUCKNOW - The ’sanjivani’ may not be just myth. Scientists are now busy trying to identify the magical herb, which according to the Indian epic Ramayana brought back to life Lord Ram’s dying brother Lakshman.

Having found a few Himalayan herbs that match the description of the sanjivani, a team of five scientists at the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) here is working on identifying the properties of each of these.

“We are engaged in a genetic analysis of these herbs to zero in on what we are looking for in a true sanjivani herb,” team leader P.N. Khare told IANS.

What has made the task difficult is the lookalike features of several different herbs found at high altitudes in the Himalayas from where monkey god Hanuman is understood to have fetched the herb to save the life of Lakshman who was injured in battle.

One of the herbs which appeared to be very close to the sanjivani, as identified in the Ramayana, has a very special property: no matter how dead it might appear, on being kept under dry conditions, it revives within minutes of being exposed to moisture.

“In fact, we are looking into this unique feature, which is quite rare and appears to be the key factor for its hidden rejuvenating strength,” Khare said.

While NBRI scientists are engaged in the project, ayurvedic researchers at yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Pantajali Ashram in Rishikesh claim to have already found the right herb.

“We do not dispute their claim, but as far as we are concerned we would not like to make any claim without substantiating it with laboratory proof,” Khare said.

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पश्‍चिम घाटात वाढतोय राळ धूप

सकाळ वृत्तसेवा

Tuesday, October 06th, 2009 AT 12:10 AM

पुणे - महाराष्ट्राच्या पश्‍चिम घाटातून दुर्मिळ होत असलेल्या वनौषधींचे जतन आणि संवर्धन करण्याचा प्रकल्प गरवारे महाविद्यालयाच्या बायोडायव्हर्सिटी विभागाचे प्रमुख आणि रानवा संस्थेचे समन्वयक अंकुर पटवर्धन यांनी हाती घेतला आहे. संपूर्ण पश्‍चिम घाटात आढळणाऱ्या 880 वनस्पतींना सर्वाधिक म्हणजे वर्षाला शंभर टनांहून अधिक मागणी आहे. दुर्दैवाने यातील 563 वनस्पतींच्या लागवडींचा अभ्यासच झालेला नाही. राळ धुपाचाही यात समावेश असून, महाराष्ट्रात केवळ पाच पूर्ण वाढ झालेली झाडे शिल्लक आहेत. प्रकल्पाच्या पहिल्या टप्प्यात संस्थेला राळ धुपाची वीस रोपे तयार करण्यात यश आले आहे.
या उपक्रमासाठी भानुदास चव्हाण पटवर्धन यांना सहकार्य करीत असून, ब्रिटन येथील रफर्ड फाउंडेशनने यासाठी अर्थसाह्य केले आहे. आंबा घाटात तेथील वनअधिकारी प्रकाश बागेवाडी यांच्या मदतीने नुकतीच राळ धुपाची वीस झाडे लावण्यात आली आहेत. याशिवाय वेल्ह्यात विनयकुमार पुराणिक यांच्या शेतात वावडिंग, सीता अशोक, सप्तरंगी, नरक्‍या, दशमूळ, राळ धूप या झाडांची लागवड केली आहे. नीरेजवळ जेऊर गावातही गणेश धुमाळ यांच्याकडे दीडशे प्रकारच्या वनौषधींची रोपवाटिका आहे.
याबद्दल पटवर्धन म्हणाले, ""राळ धूप या वनस्पतीवर सध्या विशेष लक्ष केंद्रित केले असून यात मिळणाऱ्या नोंदीनुसार पुढे दिशा ठरवली जाईल. धूप ही सदाहरित जंगलात आढळणारी वनस्पती आहे. पश्‍चिम घाटात केवळ पाच पूर्ण वाढ झालेली झाडे शिल्लक आहेत. या झाडाच्या डिंकाचा धुपामध्ये वापर करतात. वर्षाला साधारणतः वीस टन मागणी आहे. त्यामुळे उत्तम प्रतीचे धूप सहसा उपलब्धच होत नाही.
वनौषधी जतन आणि संवर्धन या उपक्रमात सीता अशोक, वावडिंग, नरक्‍या, सप्तरंगी, दशमूळ आणि राळ धूप या दुर्मिळ वनस्पतींची निवड केली असून, त्यांची मानवनिर्मित लागवड, फुटवे, वाढ, पुनर्निर्मिती याचा सविस्तर शास्त्रीय अभ्यास केला जात आहे. वेल्ह्यात लागवड केलेल्या रोपांच्या निरीक्षणाच्या नोंदी घेण्याचे काम सध्या सुरू आहे. याशिवाय आंबा घाटात वीस धुपाची झाडे लावली आहेत, अशी माहिती पटवर्धन यांनी दिली.

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