ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants are very important as according to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 80% of the world’s population (4.3 billion people) relies on traditional plant-based medicines as their primary form of health care (Bannerman et al. 1983). Traditional/indigenous communities have depended on plants to meet their basic needs over centuries and people around the world use between 50,000 to 80,000 flowering plants as medicinal herbs (Marinelli 2005, IUCN Species Survival Commission, 2007, Robertson 2008). Even today, traditional forms of native medicines are used extensively and medicinal plants have an important role in the health care of millions of people from developing countries (Hamilton 2008). In China, traditional medicine accounts for around 40% of total health care services. Similarly, traditional medical systems support many people including a large number of the poor population in Africa, South Asia, South America and Latin America for their health cure. But due to various threats medicinal plants and knowledge based on them are endangered. The revitalization of traditional medical heritage is crucial for improving the health security of millions of people and to maintain natural interdependence of people and plants.
