Science Pod cast- medicinal plants

MedicinalPlants

Simply, plants equal life. They are the primary producers that sustain all other life forms. They regulate air and water quality, shape ecosystems and control the climate. They provide food, medicine, clothes, shelter and the raw materials from which innumerable other products are made. These benefits are widely recognised but poorly understood. Because of this plants are both a vital part of the world’s biological diversity and an essential economic resource for human existence. Yet plant extinctions are occurring at a rate unmatched in geological history, leaving ecosystems incomplete. Current extinction rates are at least 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates, with a quarter of the world’s coniferous trees known to be in jeopardy and as many as 15,000 medicinal plants under threat. Whilst the extinction of a species is the ultimate loss, the process of extinction itself has serious consequences for local ecosystems. Plant to plant interactions effect both resource availability and habitat structure, and play an important role in mediating the responses of natural systems meaning the loss of any one species weakens an ecosystem’s ability to adapt in a rapidly changing world.

 Medicinal plants have been used by mankind for thousands of years; their use is as old as humanity itself. The range of species used and their scope for healing is vast. Cures as yet undiscovered may exist in plants as yet undescribed. Currently, it is estimated that the number of higher plant species used worldwide for medicinal purposes is more than 50,000.