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Series editor: Alison SempleDesign and layout: Ivette FabbriSuggested citation: Cunningham, A.B. (1993). African medicinal plants: setting priorities at the interface between conservation and primary health care. People and Plants working paper 1. Paris. UNESCO.

Author's address:A.B. Cunningham84 Watkins Street - White Gum Valley, Fremantle 6162Western Australia - Australia

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do notimply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal statusof any country, territory, city, or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiersor boundaries. The opinions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author and do notcommit any Organization.

Sustainable management of traditional medici-nal plant resources is important, not onlybecause of their value as a potential source ofnew drugs, but due to reliance on traditionalmedicinal plants for health. The vast majority(70-80%) of people in Africa consult traditionalmedical practitioners (TMPs) for healthcare.With few exceptions, traditional medicinalplants are gathered from the wild. Althoughreliance on TMPs may decline in the long termas alternative healthcare facilities becomeavailable, increasing demand for popular herbalmedicines is expected in the foreseeable future.Over the same period, certain vegetation typesthat were sources of supply of traditional med-icines will drastically decline due to forestclearance for agriculture, afforestation of mon-tane grasslands, uncontrolled burning and live-stock grazing. Exclusion from core conserva-tion areas adversely affects TMPs who previ-ously gathered medicinal plants in those sites.In addition, supplies of herbal medicines toTMPs are affected by competing resource usessuch as timber logging, commercial harvestingfor export and extraction of pharmaceuticals,and use for building materials and fuel. Thiscreates a growing demand for fewer resources,in some cases resulting in local disappearanceof favoured and effective sources of tradition-al medicine and reduced species diversity.

The most vulnerable species are popular,slow growing or slow to reproduce, or specieswith specific habitat requirements and a limit-ed distribution. Although in theory, sustainable

use of bark, roots or whole plants used as herbalmedicines is possible, the high levels of moneyand manpower required for intensive manage-ment of slow growing species in multiple-species systems are unlikely to be found in mostAfrican countries. The cultivation of alterna-tive sources of supply of popular, high conser-vation priority species outside of core conser-vation areas is therefore essential. However,commercial cultivation of such species is not asimple solution and at present is unlikely to beprofitable due to the slow growth rates formost tree species and low prices paid for tra-ditional medicines. These slow growing speciesare a priority for ex situ conservation and strictprotection in core conservation areas. By con-trast, the high price paid for some species doesmake them potential new crop plants for agro-forestry systems (e.g. Warburgia salutaris,Garcinia kola, G. afzelii, G. epunctata) or agri-cultural production (e.g. Siphonochilusaethiopicus). Pilot studies on these species areneeded.

Priority areas for cooperative actionbetween healthcare professionals and conser-vationists are rapidly urbanizing regions witha high level of endemic taxa, particularly westAfrica (Guineo-Congolian region), specificallyCte dIvoire, Ghana, and Nigeria; east Africa(Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania); south-easternAfrica (South Africa, Swaziland). The mostthreatened vegetation types are Afro-montaneforest and coastal forests of the Zanzibar-Inhambane regional mosaic.

African medicinal plantsSETTING PRIORITIES AT THE INTERFACE

BETWEEN CONSERVATION AND PRIMARY HEALTHCARE

Abstract

African medicinal plants: setting priorities at the interface between conservation and primary healthcare

ContentsAbstract ContentsIntroduction

The role of traditional medical practitionersCustomary controls on medicinal plant gatheringDynamics of the commercial trade

Domestic tradeInternational trade

The impact of the trade in medicinal plantsSustainable supplies of traditional medicinesSustainability of chewing stick harvestingSupplying international trade

The real price of tradeThe reasons for concernFocus of management effortConditions for cultivation as an alternative source of supply

Key issuesConservation strategyPolicy recommendations

International and national policySharing the costsConservation methods

In-situ conservationBuffer zones and ex-situ conservation

Buffer zonesTraditional medical practitionersConservation through commercial cultivationBotanical gardens and field gene banksOther recommendations

Education and trainingResearch and monitoring

AcknowledgementsPersonal communicationsReferencesAppendix 1: African medicinal plants observed in trade Appendix 2: Plant species mentioned in text

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African medicinal plants: setting priorities at the interfacebetween conservation and primary healthcare

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If there is to be any real improvement in thehealth of the under-served populations of theworld, then there will have to be full utiliza-tion of all available resources, human and mate-rial. This is fundamental to the primary health-care approach. Traditional medical practition-ers constitute the most abundant and in manycases, valuable health resources present in thecommunity. They are important and influentialmembers of their communities who should beassociated with any move to develop health ser-vices at a local level.

Akerele (1987)

First the unukane (Ocotea bullata) trees werekilled by ring-barking for sale in the cities. Nowthe same is happening to igejalibomvu (Curtisiadentata) and umkhondweni (Cryptocarya myr-tifolia) trees. Soon they will be gone as welland we will have to buy the barks from theherb traders.

Herbalist, Nkandla forest, Natal, South Africa, 1987

The populations of developing countriesworldwide continue to rely heavily on the useof traditional medicines as their primary sourceof healthcare. Ethnobotanical studies carriedout throughout Africa confirm that native plantsare the main constituent of traditional Africanmedicines (Adjanohoun et al . , 1980;Adjanohoun et al., 1984; Adjanohoun et al.,1985; Adjanohoun et al., 1986; Adjanohoun etal., 1988; Ake Assi, 1988; Ake Assi et al.,1981; Hedberg, et al., 1982; Hedberg et al.,1983a; Hedberg et al., 1985b; Kokwaro, 1976;Oliver Bever, 1987). With 70-80% of Africaspopulation relying on traditional medicines, theimportance of the role of medicinal plants inthe healthcare system is enormous. Medicinalplants are now being given serious attention,as is evidenced by the recommendation givenby the World Health Organization in 1970(Wondergem et al., 1989) that proven tradi-tional remedies should be incorporated withinnational drug policies, by recent moves towardsa greater professionalism within Africanmedicine (Last and Chavunduka, 1986) and alsoby the increased commercialization of phar-

Introduction

maceutical production using traditionalmedicinal plants with known efficacy(Sofawara, 1981).

Little attention however, has been paid tothe socio-economic and conservation aspects ofmedicinal plant resources, probably due to therelatively small volumes involved and the spe-cialist nature of the informal trade in them.However, the management of traditional med-icinal plant resources is probably the most com-plex African resource management issue fac-ing conservation agencies, healthcare profes-sionals and resource users. As pressure isincreasing on diminishing medicinal plant sup-plies, constructive resource management andconservation actions must be identified, basedupon a clear understanding of the surroundingmedicinal plant use.

This study seeks to respond to three cen-tral questions:(1) What are the causes behind the depletion

of wild populations of medicinal plantspecies in Africa?

(2) Which species are of particular concernand should be given priority for positiveaction?

(3) What can be done to ensure the effectiveconservation of all medicinal plantspecies?

An explanation of the present situation in thefirst section (Medicinal plant use in Africa)illustrates the urgent need for action. Theactions required to alleviate problems and anassessment of priorities for medicinal plant con-servation and resource management are dis-cussed in the second section (Policy prioritiesin conservation and primary healthcare).The study is based on research and literaturesurveys, correspondence with other researchers,field visits to establish contact with traditionalmedical practitioners (TMPs) and herbalists andvisits to Cte dIvoire, Malawi, Mozambique,Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 1990.

I have chosen not to make distinctionsbetween plant species with symbolic or psy-chosomatic uses and those with active ingredi-ents in this study, the main issue being whetheror not a species is threatened.


Medicinal plant use in Africa

$$

In contrast with western medicine, whichis technically and analytically based, tradition-al African medicine takes a holistic approach:good health, disease, success or misfortune arenot seen as chance occurrences but are believedto arise from the actions of individuals andancestral spirits according to the balance orimbalance between the individual and the socialenvironment (Anyinam, 1987; Hedberg et al.,1982; Ngubane, 1987; Staugard, 1985; WHO,1977). Traditionally, rural African communitieshave relied upon the spiritual and practical skillsof the TMPs (traditional medicinal practition-ers), whose botanical knowledge of plantspecies and their ecology and scarcity areinvaluable. Throughout Africa, the gathering ofmedicinal plants was traditionally restricted toTMPs or to their trainees (Photo 1). Knowledgeof many species was limited to this groupthrough spiritual calling, ritual, religious con-trols and, in southern Africa, the use of alter-native (hlonipha) names not known to outsiders.

Hedberg et al., (1982) observed that thenumber of traditional practitioners in Tanzaniawas estimated to be 30 000 - 40 000 in com-parison with 600 medical doctors (Table 1) (MPand TMP : total population ratios were notgiven). Similarly, in Malawi, there were an esti-mated 17 000 TMPs and only 35 medical doc-tors in practice in the country (Anon., 1987).

Economic and demographic projections formost African countries offer little grounds foroptimism. A shift from using traditional medi-cines to consulting medical doctors, even if theyare available, only occurs with socio-economicand cultural change, access to formal education(Kaplan, 1976) and religious influences (e.g.through the African Zionist movements, whichforbid the use of traditional medicines by theirfollowers, substituting the use of ash and holywater instead; Sundkier, 1961). Access to west-ern biomedicine, adequate education andemployment opportunities requires economicgrowth. Unfortunately, most African countries

are affected by unprecedented economic deteri-oration. Per capita income has reportedly fall-en by 4% since 1986, whilst Africas foreigndebt is three times greater than its export earn-ings. In Zambia, government spending on edu-cation has fallen by 62% in the last decade, andthat on essential pharmaceutical drugs by 75%from 1985 to 1989 (Zimbabwe Science News,1989). At the same time, the African popula-tion has grown by 3% per annum, increasingthe difficulty of adequate provision of Western-type health services. For this reason, there is aneed to involve TMPs in national healthcaresystems through training and evaluation ofeffective remedies, as they are a large and influ-ential group in primary healthcare (Akerele,1987; Anyinam, 1987; Good, 1987). Sustainableuse of the major resource base of TMPs - med-icinal plants - is therefore essential.

The sustainable use of medicinal plants wasfacilitated in the past by several inadvertent orindirect controls and some intentional manage-ment practices.

Taboos, seasonal and social restrictions ongathering medicinal plants, and the nature ofplant gathering equipment all served to limitmedicinal plant harvesting. In southern Africa(and probably elsewhere) before metalmachetes and axes were widely available, plantswere collected with a pointed wooden diggingstick or small axe, which tended to limit thequantity of bark or roots gathered. For exam-ple, traditional subsistence harvesting ofCassine papillosa bark causes relatively littledamage to the tree (Figure 1). Pressure on med-icinal plant resources has remained low inremote areas and in countries such asMozambique and Zambia where the commer-cial trade in traditional medicines has onlydeveloped to a limited extent due to the small


#

Photo 1.Trainee diviner

(twasa) with a small

quantityof Boophane

disticha(Amaryllidacea

e) bulbs for local

use.

size of major urban centres. Examples of fac-tors which have limited pressure on specieswhich would otherwise be vulnerable to over-exploitation include:

(1) Taboos against the collection of med-icinal plants by menstruating women in SouthAfrica and Swaziland; it is believed that thiswould reduce the healing power of the plants(Scudder and Conelly, 1985).

(2) The tendency in southern Africa forwomen to practise as diviners, while men prac-tise as herbalists (Berglund, 1976; Staugard,1985). This limits the number of resource users.

(3) The perceived toxicity of some medi-cinal species which reduced their use in thepast: the level of toxicity is sometimes givenmythical proportions. Synadenium cupulare forexample, is considered so toxic that birds fly-ing over the tree are killed; special ritual prepa-rations are made in west Africa before the barkof Okoubaka aubrevillei is removed (Good,1987).

(4) The traditional use of a wooden bat-ten for removal of bark from Okoubaka aubre-villei - under no circumstances may a macheteor other metal implement be used (Good, 1987).


%

For any society to institute intentionalresource management controls, certain condi-tions have to be fulfilled:

(1) the resource must be of value to thesociety;

(2) the resource must be perceived to bein short supply and vulnerable to over-exploita-tion by people;

(3) the socio-political nature of the soci-ety must include the necessary structures forresource management.

Intentional resource management controlshave endured in Africa in various forms andfor various reasons and some have affected theabundance and availability of medicinalspecies. The widespread practice in Africa ofconserving edible wild fruit-bearing trees fortheir fruits or shade also ensures availability ofsome traditional medicines as several are mul-tiple-use species. For example the following sixtrees are conserved for their fruit: Irvingiagabonensis and Ricinodendron heudelotii inwest Africa (barks are used for diarrhoea anddysentery); from southern Africa Trichiliaemetica (enemas), Parinari curatellifolia (con-stipation and dropsy), Azanza garkeana (chest

pains), and Sclerocarya birrea (diarrhoea).Albizia adianthifolia, used for enemas, is con-served for its shade.

Protection of vegetation at grave sites, forreligious and spiritual reasons, is a commonfeature in many parts of Africa (includingKenya, Malawi, South Africa and Swaziland)and an important means through which bioticdiversity is maintained outside core conserva-tion areas. In south-eastern Africa during thenineteenth century, specific Zulu regimentswere called up annually to burn fire-breaksaround the grave sites of Zulu kings: thesewoodland or forested sites were considered tobe a sanctuary for game animals (Webb andWright, 1986). An important feature of vege-tation conservation around grave sites is thatthis practice is maintained even under high pop-ulation densities and tremendous demand forarable land, for example in Malawi. The prac-tice might possibly be strengthened through theburial of prominent leaders in conservationareas.

Religious beliefs have also helped to ensurecareful harvesting of Helichrysum kraussii, anaromatic herb known as impepho in Zulu whichis widely burnt as an incense in Natal. Diviners

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are careful not to rip the plant out by its roots(Cooper, 1979).

In Swaziland and South Africa, taboos alsorestrict the seasonal (summer) collection ofAlepidea amatymbica roots, Siphonochilusaethiopicus and Agapanthus umbellatus rhi-zomes. In each case, collection is restricted tothe winter months after seed set as summergathering is believed to cause storms and light-ning. In Zimbabwe, clearance has to be obtainedfrom ancestral spirits before entering certainforests where Warburgia salutaris occurs. Ineach of the above cases (excepting Agapanthusumbellatus), the species concerned are popular,scarce and effective. These intentional conser-vation practices may be due to the century-oldhistory of trade in these plants in the southernAfrican region.

Government legislation has played a large-ly ineffective role in controlling the use of med-icinal plants in Africa. Under colonial admin-istration, religious therapy systems practised bydiviners were equated with witchcraft and leg-i s l a t e d a g a i n s t a l m o s t e v e r y w h e r e(Cunningham, 1990; Gerstner, 1938; Staugard,1985). In South Africa (and possibly other partsof Africa) during the colonial era, there werealso attempts to prohibit the sale of traditionalmedicines within urban areas, such as theefforts made by the Natal PharmaceuticalSociety in the 1930s in Durban, South Africa.Apart from having the temporary effect of dri-ving informal sector plant sellers and TMPs

underground, this kind of legislation has beenineffective in reducing traditional medicine use.Attempts to suppress traditional medicine arenot, however, solely restricted to the colonialera: in post-independence Mozambique, forexample, diviners involved in symbolic ormagico-medicinal aspects of traditional medi-cine were sent to re-education camps in aneffort to do away with obscurantism(Adjanohoun et al., 1984).

Although forest legislation in most Africancountries generally recognizes the importanceof customary usage rights (including gatheringof dead-wood for fuel, felling poles and gath-ering latex, gums, bark resins, honey and med-icinal plants) conservation land or certain plantspecies are often set aside for strict protection(Schmithusen, 1986). In South Africa, forexample, forestry legislation was promulgatedin 1914 for the protection of economicallyimportant timber species such as Ocotea bul-lata. Specially protected status has been givensince 1974 to all species within the familiesLiliaceae, Amaryllidaceae and Orchidaceae dueto their prominence in the herbal medicinetrade.

At best, this legislation has merely sloweddown the rate of harvesting. Extensive exploita-tion within forest reserves still occurs in SouthAfrica. One of the main reasons for this is thatlegislation for core conservation areas (CCAs)in the past has concentrated on a holdingaction to maintain the status quo and neglected

Figure 1. Assessment of debarking damage to Cassine papillosa (Celastraceae) trees in an area where subsistence harvesting rather than commercialexploitation is taking place (Cunningham, 1988a)


1

to provide local communities with viable alter-natives to collecting customary plants.

--

If effective action is to be taken to dealwith the over-exploitation of medicinal plants,there has to be a clear understanding of thescale and complexity of the problem.

--

Africa has the highest rate of urbanizationin the world, with urban populations doublingevery 14 years as cities grow at 5.1% each year(Huntley et al., 1989). In rural areas through-out Africa, wild plant resources fulfill a widerange of basic needs and are a resource baseharvested for informal trade or barter, whereasin urban areas, a much smaller range of speciesand uses is found. In rural areas of theMozambique coastal plain for example, 76 edi-ble wild plant species are used (Cunningham,1988a) but only five species are sold in urbanmarkets in Maputo. Urbanization results in thisgeneral reduction in the number of species andthe quantities of certain wild plant resourcesused as people enter the cash economy, andalternative foods, utensils and building materi-als become available. However, informal sec-tor trade in two categories of wild plantresources continues to be very important inmany cities: fuelwood (alternative energysources such as electricity, gas and paraffin arenot available or affordable; Eberhard, 1986;Farnsworth, 1988) and medicinal plants.

The range of commercially sold medicinalspecies in southern Africa remains wide despiteurbanization (over 400 indigenous species inNatal, South Africa, for example; Cunningham,1990). Little attention has been paid to the cul-tural, medical, economic or ecological signifi-cance of the herbal medicine trade, yet tradi-tional medicine sellers are a feature of everyAfrican city (ECP/GR, 1983). Cities are con-centrated centres of demand drawing in tradi-tional medicines from outlying rural areas andacross national boundaries. Despite the differ-ences in volume and range of species used, par-allels can be drawn between the trade in med-icinal plants and that in fuelwood:(1) high proportions of people use medicinal

plants (70-80%) and fuelwood (60-95%)(Leach and Mearns, 1988);

(2) high urban demand can undermine the

rural resource base by causing the deple-tion of favoured but slow growing speciessuch as Combretum (fuelwood, Botswana;Kgathi, 1984) and Warburgia salutaris(bark medicines, Zimbabwe);

(3) harvesting is a strenuous and labour inten-sive activity with financial returns, carriedout by rural people with a low level of for-mal education and poor chance of formalemployment;

(4) supplies may be drawn from a long dis-tance away - from 200-500 km for fuel-wood in many African cities (Leach andMearns, 1989) and as far as 800-1200 kmfor certain medicinal plants in west Africasuch as Entada africana and Swartziamadagascariensis or Synaptolepis kirkii insouthern Africa (Cunningham, 1988a).

The herbal medicine trade is characterized bytwo features. First, from being almost solely anactivity of traditional specialists, medicinalplant collection has now shifted to involve com-mercial harvesters in the informal sector, and(in South Africa at least) formal sector traders(Table 2) who supply the large urban demand.Women, rather than men, are increasinglyinvolved as non-specialist sellers of traditionalmedicines, and this general pattern is seenthroughout Africa. In rural areas and small vil-lages, male and female TMPs practise fromtheir homes. In larger villages, herbalists (main-ly men) dispense from a small quantity of tra-ditional medicines that they have gatheredthemselves. In towns, larger quantities of mate-rial are sold, some of which are bought fromcommercial harvesters, and in cities or largetowns, large quantities of plant material are sup-plied by commercial harvesters and soldthrough increasing numbers of informal sectorsellers (mainly women) to urban herb tradersor herbalists for self-medication. Men drop outof non-specialist sales as it becomes an increas-ingly marginal activity, and only persist as sell-ers of animal material. Second, demand for tra-ditional medicines is highly species specific andalternatives are not easily provided due to thecharacteristics of the plant or animal material,their symbolism, or the form in which they aretaken. These large urban areas dictate prices,which are kept low because of rising unem-ployment, over-supply and cheap labour. Thusnothing is paid towards the replacement of thewild stocks.

In the stressful environment which is afeature of many urban areas in Africa, it isnot surprising that demand has increased fortraditional medicinal plant and animal mate-rials which are believed to have symbolic orpsychosomatic value.


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12.8% sold to France, 1.9% to Italy, 1.5% toUSA, 1% to Belgium and 1.2% sold locally orto South Africa (Nott, 1986). Unfortunately, thelow prices paid for the plants do not coverreplacement or resource management costs, andas such, major importers demanding high vol-umes of plant material are contributing to thedecline of medicinal plant species in Africa.

$$

Commercial gathering of traditional medicinesin large countries with small urban populations(e.g. Mozambique, Zaire and Zambia) is limit-ed and cases of over-exploitation are rare.Harvesting by TMPs continues usually to beselective and on a small scale, and traditionalconservation practices, where they exist, wouldbe expected to be retained. In African coun-tries with high rural population densities andsmall cities (e.g. Rwanda), gathering is alsoexpected to be small scale, and where a speciesis popular and supplies are low due to habitatdestruction and agricultural expansion, the treewill suffer a death of a thousand cuts ratherthan one-off ring-barking due to commercialharvesting (see Photo 3).

The emergence of commercial medicinalplant gatherers in response to urban demand formedicines and rural unemployment has result-ed in indigenous medicinal plants being con-sidered as an open access or common proper-

ty resource instead of a resource only used byspecialists. The resultant commercial, large-scale harvesting has been the most significantchange, although seasonal and gender relatedrestrictions have also altered. Rural traditionalmedical practitioners and the hereditary chiefswho traditionally regulate resource manage-ment practices admit that ring-barking andover-exploitation by commercial gatherers arebad practices that undermine the local resourcebase. In Natal (South Africa) it appears thatrestrictions placed by traditional communityleaders and enforced by headmen and tradi-tional community policemen have reducedcommercial exploitation of local traditionalmedicinal plant resources. With culturalchange, increased entry into the cash economyand rising unemployment however, these con-trols are breaking down.

Ring-barking or uprooting of plants is thecommonest method of collection used by com-mercial gatherers (Photo 6). Where urban pop-ulations (and resultant commercial trade in tra-ditional medicines) are relatively small, buthigh rural population densities and an agricul-tural economy have cleared most natural veg-etation, tree species such as Erythrina abyssini-ca and Cassia abbreviata, which are popularand accessible, have small pieces of barkremoved (Photos 3 and 4), rather than a one-off removal of trunk bark (Photos 5 and 6).

In South Africa, where the taboo againstgathering of traditional medicines by menstru-ating women was widespread in the past, urbanherbalists now no longer place importance onthis when buying plants from urban markets,

Photo 2.Medicinal

plant sellerat a marketin Abidjan,

CtedIvoire,

showing thedominance

of fresh leafmaterial as

a sourceof herbal

medicines.


or in some cases, treat the plants to magicallyrestore their power. Strict seasonal restrictionsare still placed on the gathering of Siphonochilusaethiopicus rhizomes in South Africa andSwaziland, but commercial collection ofAlepidea amatymbica rhizomes now takes placeon misty days in summer (although harvest-ed material is stored away from the homesteadfor fear of lightning). Even where seasonalrestrictions are still in place, demand can exceedsupply. Siphonochilus natalensis for example,had disappeared from its only known localityin Natal before 1911 as a result of trade betweenLesotho and Natal (South Africa) (Medley-Wood and Evans, 1898).

It is clear that medicinal plant species gath-ered for commercial purposes represent themost popular and often most effective (physi-ologically or psychosomatically) herbal reme-dies. From historical records (Gerstner, 1938,1939; Medley-Wood, 1896) it is clear that themajority of species that were popular in thepast are still popular today. Examples in south-ern Africa include Erythrophleum lasianthum,Cassine transvaalensis, Alepidia amatymbica

and Warburgia salutaris. Commercially soldspecies thus represent a short list of the med-icinal plants used nationally, since many speciesthat are used to a limited extent in rural areasare not in demand in the urban areas. Alsoimportant from a resource management pointof view, is that in virtually all African coun-tries, it is not the limited, selective harvestingby specialist TMPs that represents the problem.In most cases, non-sustainable use of favouredspecies results from commercial harvesting tosupply an urban demand for traditional medi-cines, after clearing for agricultural or urbanassociated development has already takenplace. The widespread commercial harvestingand sale of the same genera and speciesthroughout their distribution range is signifi-cant (e.g. Solanum fruits, Erythrophleum bark,Abrus precatorius seeds, Myrothamnus flabel-lifolius stems and leaves and Swartzia mada-gascariensis roots) (Appendix 1).

Medicinal plant gatherers are familiar withwhich species are becoming difficult to find,either because of limited geographical distrib-ution, habitat destruction or over-exploitation.

Photos 3 to 6. Declining rural resource base under non-commercial demand, but limitedsupplies (3) Erythrina abyssinica (Fabaceae), Malawi (death from a thousand cuts)and (4) Cassia abbreviata (Fabaceae), Zimbabwe, (5) Large pieces of Warburgia


#

sustainable rate of harvest. Low stocks are like-ly to produce small sustainable yields, particu-larly if the target species is slow growing andslow reproducing. Large stocks of species witha high biomass production and short time toreproductive maturity could be expected to pro-duce high sustainable yields, particularly ifcompetitive interaction is reduced by thin-ning. The impact of gathering on the plant isalso influenced by factors such as the part ofthe plant harvested and harvesting method.

Demand for fast growing species with a widedistribution, high natural population density andhigh percentage seed set can be met easily, par-ticularly where leaves, seeds, flowers or fruitsare used (Photo 7). The common sale and useof medicinal plant leaves as a source of med-icine in Cte dIvoire and possibly other partsof west Africa (Photo 2) is therefore highly sig-nificant as it differs markedly from the highfrequency of roots, bark or bulbs at markets in

Their insights, coupled with botanical and eco-logical knowledge of the plant species involved,provide an essential source of information fora survey of this type. In this survey, it was notconsidered constructive to distinguish betweenplant species with symbolic uses and those withactive ingredients. The important question hereis whether the species are threatened or not,because:(1) species that have a purely symbolic value

are nevertheless important ingredients oftraditional medicines for their psychoso-matic value and are as effective as place-bos are in urban-industrial society;

(2) the majority of traditional medicines havenot been adequately screened for activeingredients and a number of species, forexample Rapanea melanophloes in south-ern Africa, while being primarily used forsymbolic purposes, also have active ingre-dients. Conservation efforts must thereforebe directed at all species vulnerable toover-exploitation.

For any resource, a relationship exists betweenresource capital, resource population size and

salutaris (Canellaceae) bark from Namaacha on the Swaziland border commerciallygathered for sale in Maputo, Mozambique, (6) Curtisia dentata (Cornaceae) tree in Afro-montane forest, South Africa, debarked for sale in Durban, a city 100 km away.


%

the southern African region (Photo 7).Throughout Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and particular-ly South Africa, herbal material that is dried(roots or bark), or has a long shelf-life (bulbs,seeds and fruits) dominates herbal medicinemarkets (see Appendix 1). In contrast, six sell-ers in Abidjan, Cte dIvoire, primarily soldleaf material (20-41 spp.), followed by roots(1-16 spp.), bark (0-8 spp) and whole plants(0-3 spp.). This situation was typical of the 111traditional medicine sellers in Abidjan, apartfrom those bringing material from Burkina Fasoand Mali, who sell more root and bark mater-ial. The situation with chewing stick sellers inCte dIvoire and other parts of west Africa issomewhat different however, as stems and rootsare the major plant parts used, with consequenthigher impact on favoured species.

Despite limited information on the popu-lation biology of medicinal plants, it is possi-ble to classify target plant species according todemand, plant life-form, part used, distributionand abundance (Cunningham, 1990). The largecategory of traditional medicinal plants whichare under no threat at all are the cause of lit-tle concern to TMPs or to conservation biolo-gists. For these species, demand easily meetssupply. From a conservation viewpoint, on anAfrica-wide scale, there are two categories ofmedicinal plants that are of concern:(1) Slow growing species with a limited dis-

tribution which are the focus of commer-cial gathering where demand exceeds sup-ply. Harvesting expands to areas progres-sively further afield, where rising pricesfor the target species are incentives to col-lect. This results in the species beingendangered regionally and causes wide-spread depletion of the rural resource base

of TMPs. Examples of this includeWarburgia salutaris in east and southernAfrica and Siphonochilus aethiopicus inSwaziland and South Africa. Endemicspecies with a very localized distributionare a particular problem, for example:(a) Ledebouria hypoxidoides, which is

endemic to the eastern Cape region(South Africa). Herbalists wereobserved removing the last bulbs fromthe locality near Grahamstown (F.Venter, pers. comm.).

(b) Mystacidium millari, also endemic toSouth Africa, which is threatened dueto harvesting and commercial sale asa traditional medicine in the nearbycity of Durban, South Africa(Cunningham, 1988a).

(2) Popular species which are not endangeredbecause they have a wide distribution, butwhere habitat change through commercialharvesting is cause for concern. Trichiliaemetica and Albizia adianthifolia forexample, are not a high priority for con-servation in southern Africa, although theyare a popular source of traditional medi-cines. What is of concern however, is thatring-barking in conserved forests iscausing canopy gaps and changing the for-est structure, which can lead to an influxof invasive exotic species. This is impor-tant for local habitat conservation.

Both categories are of particular concern in pro-tected area management, as core conservationareas will ultimately come under pressure fromharvesting for favoured species if they are dif-ficult to obtain elsewhere.

Information on the quantities of tradition-al medicines being harvested or sold is sparse,

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whether for the local trade in traditional medi-cines, or for export and extraction of active ingre-dients. Apart from placing the quantities requiredfrom cultivation into perspective, the informa-tion available is of little relevance unlessexpressed in terms of impact on the species con-cerned. In South Africa, harvesting from wildpopulations of certain species is on a scale thatgives cause for concern amongst conservation

organizations and rural herbalists, and a listingof priority species is available (Cunningham,1988a) (Box 2). The same applies to some chew-ing stick species, such as Garcinia afzelii in westAfrica. The only quantitative data on the vol-ume of plant material sold comes from Natal(South Africa), where medicinal plants areordered by urban based herb traders in standard-size maize bags (Table 4).

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Chewing sticks are obtained from wild popula-tions of indigenous plants, apart from the infre-quent sale of exotic species such as Azadirachtaindica and Citrus sinensis (Appendix 1).Garcinia afzelii is considered to be threatenedby this trade (Ake Assi, 1988b; Gautier-Beguin,pers. comm.). In Nigeria, Okafor (1989) reportsthat Randia acuminata chewing sticks are stillcollected from primary and secondary forestwithin 3 km of villages, but that the distance isincreasing, which indicates that the resource isbeing depleted. At a single depot, for example,Okafor (1989) recorded that five commercialchewing stick collectors assembled 1144 bun-dles of chewing sticks, made up of seven or eightsplit stems one metre long per bundle. What ishighly significant from a resource managementviewpoint, and has not been taken into accountpreviously, is that whilst peeled twigs are usedas chewing sticks from most species, split stemsand roots are the source of the commerciallysold chewing sticks. Among the 27 species usedin Ghana, for example, high impact harvestingof stem wood or root material from only sevenspecies accounted for 88% of chewing sticksused. The low impact use of peeled twigs aschewing sticks accounted for the other 12 % ofsticks used and for the remaining 20 species(Ake Assi, 1988b). Impact on those sourcespecies which are cut down or up-rooted to sup-ply urban demand is therefore high.

Few data are available on the quantities of rawmaterial harvested for the pharmaceutical trade,or the environmental impact of harvesting. It isclear however that large quantities of materialare collected from the wild and that harvestingcan be very destructive. The same can apply toplant material collected for screening purpos-es. Juma (1989) offers the example of Maytenusbuchananii: 27.2 tons of plant material werecollected by the American National CancerInstitute (NCI) from a conservation area in theShimba Hills (Kenya), for screening purposesas a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer.When additional material was required fouryears after the first harvesting in 1972, regen-eration was so poor that collectors struggled toobtain the additional material needed.

No studies are known to have been carriedout on the social or environmental conse-quences of harvesting, for example:(1) the 75-80 t of Griffonia simplicifolia seed

exported each year to Germany from

Ghana (Abbiw, 1990);(2) the medicinal plant material exported from

Cameroon to France (Voacanga africanaseed (575 tons); Prunus africana bark (220tonnes), Pausinystalia johimbe bark (15 t)(United Republic of Cameroon, 1989).

However, Ake-Assi (pers. comm.) reports thatcommercial gatherers in Cte dIvoire chopdown Griffonia simplicifolia vines andVoacanga africana and Voacanga thouarsiitrees in order to obtain the fruits. Concern hasbeen expressed about a similar situation inIndonesia, where Rifai and Kartawinata (1991)point out that:

Export of medicinal plants has been goingon for many years, and the demand in the inter-national market keeps increasing. One bigSwiss pharmaceutical company, for example,has requested eight tons of seeds of Voacangagrandifolia and are willing to pay a high price.This species is rare and has light seeds. To sat-isfy the above request, all available seeds inthe forest will perhaps have to be harvested,leaving nothing for regeneration. Similarly, fivetons of rhizomes of a rare Curcuma (temabadur) has been sought by a West German phar-maceutical company, and 100 kg year-1 of pilicibotii (fine hairs of Cibotium barometz) by aFrench firm. It can be imagined how manyplants of these species will have to be destroyedshould such requests be satisfied.

If the international companies involved inthis trade are to operate in a responsible man-ner, then this situation needs to change to oneof commercial cultivation and sustainable use.

$$

The categories of medicinal plant species thatare most vulnerable to over-exploitation can beidentified by combining the insights of herbalmedicine sellers with knowledge on plant biol-ogy and distribution (Cunningham, 1990).However, due to the number of species involvedand the limited information on biomass, pri-mary production and demography of indige-nous medicinal plants, no detailed assessmentof sustainable off-take from natural populationsis possible. Even if these data were available,their value would be questionable due to theintensive management inputs required for man-aging sustainable use of vulnerable species incases where demand exceeds supply.

Unsustainably high levels of exploitationare not a new problem, although the problemhas escalated in regions with large urban areasand high levels of urbanization since the 1960s.


!

Prior to 1898, local extermination of Mondiawhitei had been recorded in the Durban area ofSouth Africa due to collection of its rootswhich found a ready sale in stores. By 1900,Siphonochilus natalensis (an endemic speciesn o w c o n s i d e r e d s y n o n y m o u s w i t hSiphonochilus aethiopicus; Gibbs-Russell et al.,1987) had disappeared from its only knownlocalities in the Inanda and Umhloti valleys dueto trade to Lesotho. This occurred despite a tra-ditional seasonal restriction on harvesting thisspecies. By 1938, all that could be found ofWarburgia salutaris in Natal and Zululand waspoor coppices, every year cut right down tothe bottom (Gerstner, 1938). Most botanicaland forestry records reflect the impact of com-mercial collection of Ocotea bullata bark dueto the importance of this species for timber.Oatley (1979) for example, estimated that lessthan 1% of 450 trees examined in Afro-mon-tane forest in South Africa were undamaged,and in the same region, Cooper (1979) esti-mated that 95% of all Ocotea bullata trees hadbeen exploited for their bark, with 40% ring-barked and dying. The situation would appearto be similar in Kenya, where Kokwaro (1991)records that some of the largest Warburgia salu-taris and Olea welwitschii trees have been com-pletely ring-barked and have died. InZimbabwe, due to the high demand and limit-ed distribution of this species, the situation isworse, and all that remains of wild Warburgiasalutaris populations are a few coppice shoots

(S. Mavi pers. comm., 1990). In Cte dIvoire,Garcinia afzelii is considered threatened due toharvesting for the chewing stick trade (AkeAssi, 1988b). Destructive harvesting ofGriffonia simplicifolia, Voacanga thuoarsii andVoacanga africana fruits for the internationalpharmaceutical market is also of concern (L.Ake-Assi, pers. comm., 1989). In Sapoba ForestReserve, Nigeria, despite traditional restrictionson bark removal, Hardie (1963) observed howthe trunk of a large Okoubaka aubrevillei tree(a very rare species in west Africa) was muchscarred where pieces of bark had beenremoved. There appears to be nothing pub-lished on the current status of this species.Botanical records are also scanty for bulbousor herbaceous species, where little remains toindicate former occurrence after the plant hasbeen removed. It would therefore be useful tocarry out damage assessments for species suchas:(1) Okoubaka aubrevillei, Garcinia afzelii, G.

epunctata, and G. kola in Cte dIvoire ,Ghana, and Nigeria;

(2) Warburgia salutaris in Kenya, Tanzaniaand Zimbabwe;

(3) assessments of the impact of Prunusafricana and Pausinystalia johimbe barkharvesting in Cameroon and Madagascar,and fruit harvesting of Griffonia simplici-folia, Voacanga thuoarsii and Voacangaafricana for the international pharmaceu-tical market.

Figure 4. The seven-point scale used in field assessment of bark damage. All assessments represent the degree of bark removal below head height (2 m), which is marked by the dotted line and arrow in the figure (Cunningham, 1988a).


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Commercial gatherers of medicinal plant mate-rial, whether for national or international trade,are poor people whose main aim is not resourcemanagement but earning money.

Cultivation as an alternative to over-exploitation of scarce traditional medicinalplants was suggested over 50 years ago in SouthAfrica for scarce and effective species such asAlepidea amatymbica (Gerstner, 1938) andWarburgia salutaris (Gerstner, 1946). Until twoyears ago, no large scale cultivation had takenplace. There are two main reasons for this, andboth apply elsewhere in Africa:(1) lack of institutional support for production

and dissemination of key species for cul-tivation;

(2) the low prices paid for traditional medic-inal plants by herbal medicine traders andurban herbalists.

If cultivation is to be a success as an alterna-tive supply to improve the self-sufficiency ofTMPs and take harvesting pressure off wildstocks, then plants have to be produced cheap-ly and in large quantity. Any cultivation forurban demand will be competing with materi-al harvested from the wild that is supplied ontothe market by commercial gatherers who haveno input costs for cultivation. Prices thereforeincrease with scarcity due to transport costs,search time and the long-distance trade. At pre-sent, low prices (whether for local or interna-tional pharmaceutical trade) ensure that fewspecies can be marketed at a high enough priceto make cultivation profitable. Even fewer ofthe potentially profitable species are in the cat-egory most threatened by over-exploitation.

At present, cultivation of herbs and medi-cinal plants is chiefly restricted to temperateareas (Staritsky, 1980) and with the exceptionof India (Kempanna, 1974) and Nepal (Malla,1982), few tropical countries have investigat-ed the potential of cultivating medicinal plantson a commercial scale. Cultivation of herbs andmedicinal plants is widespread in easternEurope, but even where cultivation is welldeveloped, such as in the Russian Federation,about half of the supplies are gathered fromwild populations (Staritsky, 1980). In all caseswhere cultivation has taken place, whether inEurope, Asia or Africa, plants have been grownfor profit or a high level of resource returns

and provide acceptable alternative resourcesoutside increasingly fragmented core conserva-tion areas to stop over-exploitation of favouredspecies inside them.


%

(e.g. multiple use species for fruits, shade andmedicinal properties) and are either fast grow-ing species, or plants where a sustainable har-vest is possible (e.g. resins (Bosweilia), leaves(Catha edulis).

With few exceptions, prices paid to gath-erers are very low, taking no account of annu-al sustainable off-take. In many cases, medic-inal plants are also an open access, rather thana limited access or private resource. To makea living, commercial medicinal plant gathererstherefore mine rather than manage theseresources. If cultivation of tree species is to bea viable proposition as an income generatingactivity then either:(1) the flood of cheap bark/roots mined from

wild stocks is reduced through better pro-tection of conserved forests in order tobring prices to a realistic level; or,

(2) wild populations will have to decline fur-ther before cultivation is a viable option.

Cultivation for profit is therefore restricted toa small number of high priced and/or fast grow-ing species (Box 3).

Although some of these species are threat-ened in the wild (e.g. Garcinia afzelii andWarburgia salutaris), low prices ensure that fewslow growing species are cultivated. With thedeclining economic state of many African coun-tries, it is unlikely that subsidized productionof these species is likely to occur, and collec-tion of seed or cuttings for establishment offield-gene banks (for recalcitrant fruitingspecies) and seed banks must therefore be seenas an urgent priority.

Strong support and commitment are nec-essary if cultivation is to succeed as a meansof meeting the requirements of processingplants for pharmaceuticals (whether for localconsumption or export) or urban demand forchewing sticks and traditional medicinal plants.If cultivation does not take place on a largeenough scale to meet demand, it merelybecomes a convenient bit of window dress-ing, masking the continued exploitation ofwild populations. The regional demand for wildScilla natalensis (Liliaceae) in Natal, SouthAfrica is 300 000 bulbs yr-1, all at least 8-10years old. On a 6-year rotation under cultiva-tion at the same planting densities as Gentry etal., (1987) used for Urginea maritima, 70 hawould be required (Cunningham, 1988a). Dueto their slow growth rates, the rotational arearequired for tree species would be far greater,with total area dependent on demand.

The success of cultivation also depends onthe attitude of TMPs to cultivated material, andthis varies from place to place. In Botswana,TMPs said that cultivated material was unac-ceptable, as cultivated plants did not have thepower of material collected from the wild (F.Horenburg, pers. comm.). Discussions withsome 400 TMPs in South Africa over a twoyear period showed general acceptance of cul-tivated material as an alternative. Similarly,TMPs in the Malolotja area of Swazilandaccepted cultivation as a viable alternative. Inboth countries there is a tradition of growingsucculent plant species near to homesteads toward off lightning. Similarly, in Ghana, plantsof spiritual significance such as Datura metel,

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Pergularia daemia, Leptadenia hastata andScoparia dulcis are tended around villages.Therefore, although little is known about atti-tudes to cultivation of medicinal plants in westAfrica, it is possible that TMPs would be infavour of cultivation of alternative supplysources.

An interesting model is provided inThailand where a project for cultivation ofmedicinal plant of known efficacy has been ini-tiated in about 1000 villages and traditionalhousehold remedies, with improved formulae,are produced as compressed tablets packed infoil and distributed to drug co-operatives setup through a Drug and Medical Project Fundin more than 45 000 villages as well as incommunity hospitals (Desawadi, 1991).Wondergem et al. 1989; WHO, 1977) havealready drawn on the Thailand experience inmaking recommendations regarding primaryhealthcare in Ghana.

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Figure 6. The main African phytochoria (afterWhite, 1983) showing one highconservation priority area and focal priority areas for action onmedicinal plant conservation .I. Guineo-Congolian regional

centre of endemism. II. Zambezian regional centre

of endemism.III. Sudanian regional centre of

endemism. IV. Somalia-Masai regional centre of

endemism.V. Cape regional centre of endemism. VI. Karoo-Namib regional centre of endemism. VII. Mediterranean regional centre of endemism.VIII. Afromontane archipelago-like centre of endemism

(including IX, Afroalpine archipelago-like region ofextreme floristic impoverishment, not shown separately).

X. Guinea-Congolia/Zambezia regional transition zone.XI. Guinea-Congolia/Sudania regional transition zone.XII. Lake Victoria regional mosaic. XIII. Zanzibar-Inhambane regional mosaic. XIV. Kalahari-Highveld regional transition zone. XV. Tongaland-Pondoland regional mosaicXVI. Sahel regional transition zone. XVII. Sahara regional transition zone. XVIII. Mediterranean/Sahara regional transition zone.

Figure 7.The relative size anddistribution of majorurban centres in sub-Saharan Africa(after Udo, 1982).


!

Policy priorities forconservation and primary

healthcare

88

In order to ensure the effective conservation ofAfrican plants which have medicinal value, therecommendations recognize the importance ofthe following two issues:(1) the destruction of natural habitat through

agricultural expansion, logging, planta-tions, dam construction, urban associateddevelopment, etc.;

(2) the over-exploitation of particular plantspecies to satisfy demand e.g. Warburgiasalutaris in South Africa, Swaziland andZimbabwe.

The conservation strategy for African medici-nal plants must address the problem at two lev-els: recommendations which have socio-eco-nomic effects must be incorporated at the pol-icy level and recommendations for conserva-tion methodology must be addressed at thenational and local levels. The recommendationscover the following areas:(1) international and national policy;(2) in-situ and ex-situ conservation methods;(3) education and research.

22

Policies made at both the international andnational level will have substantial effects onthe success of an overall conservation strategythrough the easing of wealth inequalitiesbetween nations. International policies such as

trade and tariff agreements, GATT and EECsubsidized imports all aim to make tradingbetween wealthier and poorer nations easier: inaddition, international aid and financial supportby such bodies as the World Bank plays animportant role. At the national level, policiesaffecting agricultural expansion, plantations,urban and industrial developments, education,employment, healthcare, the provision of socialservices and funding affect the potential suc-cess of any conservation strategy.The policy making process should:(1) recognize the international and national

price paid for habitat destruction, includ-ing the loss of medicinal plant resourcesand a reduced quality of healthcare;

(2) ensure that commodity prices at both thenational and international levels are real-istic enough to reflect the cost of resourcereplacement;

(3) ensure that incentives exist for the sus-tainable management of medicinal plantresources;

(4) encourage equitable financial partnershipagreements and incentive packages to con-serve biological diversity; tropical zonecountries with the richest biological wealthhave the poorest economic wealth withwhich to conserve those resources (debtswaps go some way to ameliorate this dis-crepancy);

(5) provide the framework for greater incen-tives such as security of land tenure toencourage longer term investment in sus-tainability;

(6) recognize the relationship between socialservices and dependence on naturalresources as a means of generating income.

International conservation agencies, in con-junction with governments and NGOs, need todetermine a mechanism whereby those


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African medicinal plants: setting priorities at the ...unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0009/000967/096707E.pdf · Appendix 2: Plant species mentioned in text ˛! "# African medicinal plants: