Medico-legal perspectives of usage, commercialization, and protection of traditional drug-yielding and essential oil-yielding plants in India

Abstract

India is one among the various mega biodiversity countries of the world, which is rich in ecosystem biodiversity and possesses more than 15 agro-climatic zones. Apart from various species of non-flowering plants, the zones harbor a pool of diverse traditional drug-yielding plants associated with their usage in folk and medicine (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy). The traditional health care practice of indigenous people applicable to human health is known as Ethnomedicine or traditional medicine. The knowledge of indigenous herbs has been gathered as an outcome of experimentation through trial and error method across several generations. Ethnomedicine is the mother of all other systems of medicine such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Herbal medicine, and also Homeopathy. In the Indian herbal industry, more than 960 plant species are used to turnover the industrial profitability to more than 80 billion rupees. Exports of traditional or herbal medicine include products from AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy), which holds a share of 3% of total Indian pharmaceutical export. Traditional medicinal plants are protected under several Acts and regulations such as Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and related regulation; The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (Amendment 2005); and The Schedule Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of forest right) Act, 2006. There are several case studies related to intellectual property rights. The modern procedure of unearthing natural drugs by appropriate examination of therapeutic effects and determination of toxic doses can control the quality of the therapeutic formulation. The inception of the development of herbal or traditional medicines was concurrent with the evolution of chemistry, isolation, purification, and determination of plant potential.