historical significance to homoeopathy. In Madagascar, common Cantha-
ranthus(Vinca) species are exploited for the anti-cancer drugs vinblastine
and vincristine, two naturally occurring alkaloids isolated in the early 1960s
by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Although there is no fear of these
particular plants becoming extinct, serious damage has been done to the
ecosystem of which they are a part.
Growing demand
Curare, the South American poisonous vine extract, is a muscle relaxant. In
fact, the Amazon Indians use at least 1000 plants medicinally. In Malaysia
and Indonesia more than twice this number of plant materials are used to
make jamu, the traditional medicine. But it is not only in the developing
world where there are problems. Germany, the largest European medicinal
plant importer, is also a major exporter of finished herbal products,
accounting for at least 70% of the European market.
A patent taken out by a US company in 1999 angered Indian scientists
and ecology experts greatly. They were furious at what they considered to
be the raiding of their country’s storehouse of traditional knowledge.^37 The
Americans were granted a patent on a composition of bitter gourd, eggplant
and jamun, the fruit of the rose-apple tree, which is abundant all over India
during the summer months. The use of these substances to treat diabetes
dates back many centuries and is mentioned in many ancient texts on
healing. Other indigenous Indian herbal products on which patents have
been taken out include mustard seeds (used for bronchial and rheumatic
complaints), Indian gooseberry (coughs, asthma, jaundice and wounds) and
neem (pesticidal, dermatological and antibacterial properties). The last has
attracted dozens of patent applications. It is probably the most celebrated
medicinal tree in India.
A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report warns that the enormous
market demand could have an irreversible impact on many species unless
action is taken to regulate trade,^38 e.g. the terpenoid taxol can be made semi-
synthetically from one or more of the constituents of Taxus baccata, a yew
tree that grows among pine forests at around 3000 m in the Himalayas.
Taxol is of use in the treatment of ovarian and breast cancer. Pharmaceutical
companies have stripped forest areas of this species and available trees in a
bid to meet the demand for this drug. One cause of the problem was an
earlier unconsidered arbitrary decimation of the yew tree population. In
1977 the plant was not considered important enough even to be included in
a book on trees, but within 15 years it had become an endangered species.
According to a newspaper report, more South Africans are using tradi-
tional muti made from plants or animals, driving some species to extinction
16 |Traditional medicine