Every country has its own traditional health care practices. These practices have evolved based on culture, philosophy, geographical conditions, flora, and mineral resources. Availability of Medicinal plants is the backbone of traditional health care practices like Ayurveda, Folk, Siddha, Unani, etc. India with its enormous natural flora is considered the ‘Herbarium of World’ and is one of the 12 mega biodiversity countries harboring two unique ‘Biodiversity Hotspots’ out of 18 in the world. But the overexploitation of these resources leads to depletion and scarcity of Medicinal plants. According to IUCN and WWF, about 50,000 - 80,000 flowering plant species are used for medicinal purposes worldwide. Among these, around 15,000 species are threatened with extinction from overharvesting and habitat destruction and 20 % of their wild resources have already been nearly exhausted with the exploitation from manhood. The current loss of plant species is around 100 to 1000 times above the expected natural extinction rate and it’s said that the world is losing at least one potential major drug every 2 years. This eventually led to substitution or adulteration of the original plant source, which can adversely affect the quality, safety, and efficacy of the individual drug or formulations. The increasing demand for herbal products worldwide also pressurizes the pharmaceutical industry for overproduction of the same, which in turn drains out the natural resources to the maximum extent. So, it is the need of the hour to conserve the biodiversity of medicinal plant wealth for the present and forthcoming generations, by adopting suitable strategies and appropriate methods of conservation.
