Preserving the natural pharmacy of the future

(translated from the German magazine “Gesundheits Nachrichten”, text by Andrea Pauli

Medicinal biodiversity is threatened worldwide by climate change. Medicinal plants must be better protected and researched.

Half of all medicinal raw materials approved worldwide over the last four decades were based on plant-based active ingredients or were inspired by them. Medicinal plants, as internationally leading scientists agree, are indispensable for the sustainable medical care of humanity. This is especially true in regions of the world where the population has little access to commercial medicines. But medicinal plants are increasingly under pressure: climate change is affecting them, their natural habitats are shrinking at an alarming rate and uncontrolled wild collections are already putting some species on the brink of extinction. In addition, traditional knowledge of medicinal plants is being lost due to the suppression of indigenous cultures.

Potential for global healthcare

Biodiversity researchers have called in the specialist journal "The Lancet Planetary Health" for systematic research into medicinal plants to be advanced in order to be able to use their potential for global healthcare in the long term. One thing is clear: this is urgent, because the risk of plants becoming extinct before their suitability as medicinal product producers has been recognized and researched is immense.

Scientists are also concerned about the fact that the stress caused by climate change could impair the medicinal plants' previously known effects. They would therefore no longer be of the required quality and safety.

Interaction of the ecosystem

Apart from the benefits we humans derive from medicinal plants, they are immensely important for nature itself. "The bioactive plant substances that we use as medicines fulfil specific functions in nature in the interaction between plants and the ecosystem - from pollination to soil quality," emphasizes Junior Professor David Nogués Bravo from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen. He is also the author of the aforementioned appeal.

Secondary plant substances, which can have a strong medicinal effect, are pace-setting substances in ecological networks. For example, they regulate pollination, ward off predators, prevent infections in damaged plant organs or regulate stress such as cold and dryness.

"Extreme temperatures, droughts and increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere can disrupt this complex interaction. Climate and biodiversity research must work together here - at all levels, from the genetic and molecular to species communities and therapeutic ecosystems - in order to create the basis for suitable protective plant concepts," demands Noqués.

“Medicinal plants only produce medicines when the ecological conditions are right, so we have to protect the ecological conditions in order to produce natural medicines," says his colleague Dr. Spyros Theodoridis from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in Frankfurt.

More research needed

The medicinal plants used to produce A.Vogel natural remedies come exclusively from controlled organic cultivation, approved wild collections and sustainable projects in the plant's home country - taking into account the needs of the country and the local population.

Of the 374,000 medicinal plants known to date, just 15 percent have been chemically analyzed in more detail. Only 6 percent have been pharmacologically examined to date. Reasons for this include a lack of basic research and insufficient research funding.

Focusing on permaculture

To protect medicinal plants effectively is therefore the challenge of the future, for the benefit of all of us. Strict guidelines from all companies that import medicinal plants are essential. "Pharmaceutical companies should only accept material that is properly certified and of known origin, and not material that has been illegally collected in the wild," emphasizes Dr. Theodoridis. Permaculture systems that mimic natural ecosystems are very welcome. In this way, medicinal plants can be grown sustainably and there is no need to take them from the wild. Wild collectors could make a living in such cultivation systems.

Revealing effectiveness

We have already come a long way in terms of the possibilities for the pharmacological examination of medicinal plants. Firstly, through new developments in the research of metabolic products (metabolomics). Secondly, at the genomic level: complex mixtures of active ingredients from plant extracts can be broken down very precisely and individual components isolated. Example: Sequencing the genome of the yew tree to identify the genes responsible for the biosynthesis of paclitaxel (a cytostatic drug used to treat cancer).

(Health News July-August 2024 Text: Andrea Pauli)