ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants can be considered to include all plant materials such as foliage, root, flower, fruit, and seed which may be used as such or in the form of their extracts and chemical compounds isolated from them to produce drugs for human and veterinary medicine. A large variety of medicinal plants continue to be gathered from their wild growth in the country of their origin, both for home consumption and export. Cultivation of medicinal plants is currently limited to a few commodities, regulated by bulk demand generated in international trade, manufacturing drug units, and national pharmacopoeias. The world pharmaceutical industry needs over 1000 tonnes of diosgenin and its analogues for the production of corticosteroids, pregnenes, androstenes, norsteroids, and other similar chemicals. The synthesis and accumulation of secondary metabolites used in drugs and pharmaceuticals are governed by the laws of genetics.
