The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7487 p109
2 February 2008

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Medicinal plants face extinction

Hundreds of medicinal plant species are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss, over-population, increasing urbanisation, destructive harvesting and agricultural expansion, according to a report from Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

The report says that about 25 per cent of prescription drugs are derived directly from flowering plants or modelled on plant molecules. “Up to 15,000 medicinal plants are under threat in the wild and, if no action is taken, some of them could be extinct in under 10 years,” said Belinda Hawkins, research officer at BGCI and author of the report.