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Medicinal herbs:
Nearly 10 percent endemic
Priyanka KURUGALA
Over 10 percent of all the medicinal herbs used in Sri Lanka are
endemic to the country. Of this number about 80 species are endangered,
Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens Director Dr Cyril Wejesundara told
the Daily News. There are well over 500 endemic species used in
traditional medicine among the native flora of Sri Lanka.
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Dr Cyril Wejesundara |
Apart from that there are over 900 non-indigenous medicinal plants
used in native medicine, he said.
The populations of medicinal plants are adversely affected by over
harvesting and lack of care to their habitat. Due to accessing the
required medicinal plants and herbs from forests their lifespan is
threatened, he said.
In addition, increased demand for agricultural land and unsustainable
cultivation practices destroy medicinal plant habitats, he noted.
Sri Lanka is fortunate to have a rich reserve of indigenous knowledge
on medicinal plants. There are a large number of practitioners of
traditional medicine.
A very small effort has been made to appreciate and document these
indigenous doctors knowledge, he emphasized.
As a result of degeneration in the numbers of indigenous doctors,
knowledge on indigenous medicine and vital information on the subject of
indigenous medicine is almost lost, he said.
"It is necessary to design a national conservation program linked to
a sustainable herbal cultivation strategy," he said. |
