mEDICINAL pLANTS AND tRADTIONAL mEDICINE NEWS
AWARENESS OF EXPORT POTENTIAL OF HERBS IS LOW IN INDIA: NPMB
Despite conducive environment, growing demand and a rich heritage, India's share in the global herbal market remains much below potential
According to a government report, the global herbal market is expected to grow steadily in the coming years with growing demand for herbal products worldwide. The Ministry of Science and Technology says in its report that the global herbal market is expected to be grow to around $5 trillion by 2050, but India's current share is estimated at below 2%.
The report adds that herbal remedies are important in countries like China and would become increasingly important in developing countries like India in the coming years. Standardisation is a bottleneck that has gained some attention among companies producing herbal products across the world. However, efforts are required to develop the cultivation of such plants in India.
https://www.thedollarbusiness.com/awareness-of-export-potential-of-herbs-is-low-in-india-npmb/
Chinese licorice fights diabetes and obesity
Licorice can be used to bring down diabetes and fat. A simple herb known for 4,000 years as a part of the 'Glycyrrhiza plants', or licorice, has gone under the name of 'natural sweeteners' or 'herbal medicines'. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology published a new study by researchers, who find that licorice could also reduce or stop metabolic disorders, according tonaturalnews.com.
http://www.newseveryday.com/articles/4770/20141224/http-www-naturalnews-com-048067-chinese-licorice-diabetes-traditional-medicine-html-ixzz3mderf7rq.htm
Today is Christmas. The Yuletide is here again. The season is synonymous with over indulgence in alcohol, food and sex. Hangover, weight gain and sexually transmitted infections such as Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) become the order of the day. But scientists have validated bitter kola, date palm, zobo, grapefruit, among others as 'cures' for hangover and to prevent weight gain. They advise against unprotected sex and promiscuity, and recommend being faithful to one partner and the use of condom. CHUKWUMA MUANYA writes.
http://ngrguardiannews.com/sunday-magazine/living-wellbeing/191524-date-palm-bitter-kola-zobo-top-local-herbal-cures-for-yuletide-blues
Professor spreads words on her benefits from medicinal plants
When Anne Bower's doctor suggested she take a statin drug to lower her cholesterol, she had other ideas. Call it a lifestyle redo.
Beginning in July 2013, working with doctors and later a nutritionist, Bower began eating lots of beans, greens, and grains; a little fish; and almost no meat. She cut way down on sugar and saturated fat and began doing yoga. She hiked in the Wissahickon and took long walks with the dog.
"But the biggest change I made was to increase the number of medicinal plants I use," said Bower, associate biology professor at Philadelphia University in East Falls, who shared her knowledge of those plants with students this semester.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20141226_Professor_spreads_words_on_her_benefits_from_medicinal_plants.html#C5uIvjDgkBtupoyf.99
A new lease of life for medicinal plants
The Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) has launched a project 'resource conservation, augmentation, sustainable harvesting and value addition of medicinal plants resources' to conserve the critically endangered medicinal plants in the Western Ghats region.
The project implemented with financial assistance of the National Medicinal Plant Board also aims at ensuring sustainable income to the tribal people who earn their livelihood collecting minor forest produces.
The project will be executed in association with the biodiversity management committees functioning at the grama panchayat level and the Forest Department.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/a-new-lease-of-life-for-medicinal-plants/article6703612.ece
Grandma's Medicines Grow On Trees
For years, grandmothers had to fight to prove the efficacy of herbs and medicinal plants for a wide range of illnesses; but these plants have since become the main ingredients in a variety of herbal teas now on supermarket shelves across the island.
"Jamaicans traditionally have used herbs for hundreds of years, but it has been done very informally. In the country, you would pick it from your yard or the area around your yard. It was never cultivated as a crop for sale other than a few items such as ginger, for example, which used to be a very big crop in Jamaica and people consumed it as a hot beverage or a cold beverage," explained chief executive officer of Jamaican Teas Limited, John Mahfood.
Noting the demand for some of these herbs over the years, Mahfood's company decided to make them more accessible to those whose busy schedule would not allow them to go to the country and reap these plants. Currently, his company depends on farmers to bring the plants to them to be processed and packaged for consumption.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20141130/lead/lead6.html
Market Research Reports, Inc. has announced the addition of "Antibiotics, Medicinal Plants, Superbugs And The Coming Antimicrobial Resistant Drugs Pandemic: global Markets, Competitors And Opportunities-2014-2019 Analysis And Forecasts" research report to their offering.
Lewes, DE -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/28/2014 -- An Antibiotic is an agent that either kills or inhibits the growth of a microorganism. The world is now facing a grave situation: it is losing the battle against infectious diseases; bacteria are fighting back and are becoming resistant to modern medicine; in short, pharmaceutical drugs don't work. If resistance is allowed to increase, in a few decades people may start dying from the most commonplace of ailments that today can be treated easily. In fact, the ability of organisms to develop resistance to the effects of antimicrobial therapies developed to kill them is potentially the greatest challenge to healthcare in the 21st century.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2365644#ixzz3N2jtZRvT
Discovery of the therapeutic value of herbal product
I have achieved a great medical breakthrough by discovering a herbal drug extracted from a plant for treating kidney failure with 100% success guarantee whereby I have opened a new avenue for medical science and I have spent nearly 20 years of research in this particular field and the herbal drug has been developed under the system of local health tradition based on a locally available endemic plant known as Inpensing in Liangmai dialect which can be identified in English, Botanical, Scientific and local name with full photograph of the plant to ensure real identification. With this traditional medicine, I have treated a good number of patients who have been suffering from renal ailments/kidney failure.
I have recorded 100% success rate which can be physically verified. There is a wide variety of species of this kind of plant and proper identification is prerequisite. There are five different varieties of this particular plant species out of which one smallest one has the potential of medicinal value and therefore careful identification is necessary.
http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/page/items/46703/discovery-of-the-therapeutic-value-of-herbal-product
Herbal garden provides remedy to ailing people
Had it been left unnoticed, the space under the overhead water tank at Meenakshipuram here would have been barren or misused by locals. But, the initiative of Deputy Mayor P. Jeganathan alias Ganesan to convert it into a herbal garden has not only added beauty to the area, but also has come in handy for the people during monsoon season.
A number of people visit the herbal garden every day during this rainy season. For, the medicinal plants being maintained by Mr. Ganesan provide much-needed relief for the seasonal ailments. The herbs come not only free of cost but also without any side-effects.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/herbal-garden-provides-remedy-to-ailing-people/article6651254.ece
Life-saving medicinal plants under threat from biodiversity erosion
As global efforts to prevent biodiversity depletion focus more on fauna than flora, experts call for guidelines to protect against the threatened loss of life-saving plants.
Uprooted, over-harvested, trampled or brashly ignored by the wider world, plants are the unsung heroes of modern medicine. Since time immemorial, species with healing properties have been called upon and indeed relied upon to treat the sick and injured.
And although our modern day brave new world of medical possibility bears little resemblance to the slower pace of ancient indigenous cures, it has not rendered our reliance on the vegetation that coats our earth, obsolete. On the contrary, medicinal plants continue to play an integral role in the protection of human health. Yet seemingly unmoved by this dynamic, humans largely fail to return that protective favor. "Medicinal plants don't have a voice," Manoj Kumar Sarkar, author of Management Strategies for Endemic and Threatened Medicinal Plants in India told Global Ideas. "All over the world the expenditure for the protection of fauna is far greater than for flora - including medicinal plants."
http://www.dw.de/life-saving-medicinal-plants-under-threat-from-biodiversity-erosion/a-18056035
Botanist from UK applauds research done by Patanjali Yogpeeth
http://www.thehealthsite.com/news/botanist-from-uk-applauds-research-done-by-patanjali-yogpeeth/
Israeli-Palestinian study finds regional flowers help combat viruses
Three-year study conducted by Israeli, Palestinian, Spanish and Greek researchers examined various flowers and plants in Israel and found potential for use in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4602587,00.html
IF you are reading this, then you either know or have parents who know what we are all missing in refusing to use our available locally grown (behind the house little garden) plants. For most, when they see or hear of "medicinal plants" they see native doctors or plants made for those who cannot afford the orthodox medicine. I often find this amusing especially coming from learned people who should understand that most medicines did not fall from the skies or are products of chemical analysis but rather are plant based.
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/features/natural-health/187164-promoting-african-medicinal-plants-through-multi-stakeholder-meeting-herbfest
An organic garden of plenty in Mali's arid soil
In a strikingly green corner of Mali, one man is leading an agricultural revolution, using organic farming methods to get the most out of the land -- and pass his techniques on to others in west Africa.
Oumar Diabate has established a reputation for raising chemical-free vegetables, fruit and medicinal plants at his small farm about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the capital Bamako.
In a vast country where two-thirds of the terrain is desert, Diabate, 47, lovingly tends his two hectares (five acres), nudging tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce and beetroot from the ochre soil.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-2863167/An-organic-garden-plenty-Malis-arid-soil.html
