http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/ Medicinal plants face extinction as Russian gangs plunder herb supply By David Harrison, Environment Correspondent CRIMINAL gangs are muscling in on the soaring demand for herbal medicines in Britain and other Western countries and threatening the existence of many plants, says Professor David Bellamy, the leading international conservationist. Prof Bellamy said that the gangs were using threats and violence to take over the harvesting and sales of health-giving plants in former communist countries including Russia, Albania and Romania. The combination of booming Western demand and criminal involvement had pushed up prices and led to serious "over-collection". Some 200 medicinal plants in Europe - and many more in poorer countries - were now endangered species and the list was growing all the time, said Prof Bellamy. He said: "It's good that more and more people in Britain and other Western countries are turning to herbal medicines. But the downside is that the plants are being over-collected, often on the orders of mafia gangs, and many of them are now in serious danger of being wiped out. "We must find a way of balancing global need with a responsible approach to growing and harvesting the plants."He added that more criminals were moving into the trade. In Russia they were reported to be illegally harvesting wild ginseng from protected areas of Siberia. Prof Bellamy, whose father was a pharmacist who made up herbal remedies, said: "Russia used to have the tightest conservation laws in the world but since the collapse of Communism it's become a lot more lax and the criminal elements have been able to exploit that." Fifteen million people in Britain are regular users of herbal medicines and one in four of all prescription drugs dispensed by Western pharmacists are likely to contain herbal ingredients, according to recent research. There are now 3,000 herbal medicines - excluding Chinese remedies - available in shops and pharmacies in the United Kingdom. Prof Bellamy said: "These God-given plants are vital to the health of everyone, especially the world's poor. The issue is now at crisis point. Time is not on our side and we need to act now." One of the plants under threat is the Arnica which has been used by Britons to treat shock and heal wounds for about 200 years. Another, Golden Seal (Hydrastus canadenis), has been gathered almost to extinction and is now the fifth most endangered species in the world. Some of the endangered species are household names such as liquorice, used for cough medicines, and thyme and oregano, which have a medicinal as well as a gastronomic use. Others on the danger list are pheasant's eye (Adonis vernalis) used for heart problems; yellow gentian, for the digestive system; bearberry, for urinary tract disorders; and round-leaved sundew, for respiratory problems, bronchitis and asthma. The Conservation Foundation and Planet Herbs, Britain's biggest supplier to medical herbalists, will this month launch a campaign urging governments to take the lead in tackling the crisis. The decision to launch the campaign was taken at a meeting of conservationists, plant experts and manufacturers of herbal remedies and health food supplements in London last week. Prof Bellamy, who is currently in Italy working on his autobiography, said: "Europe takes a quarter of the world's imports of herbal plants, but our concern is for the 80 per cent of people on the planet, the poor, who rely on herbal medicines for their health care needs. A bold strategy is urgently required." James Fearnley, a director of Planet Herbs, said: "We can only succeed by working with and helping those who gather 90 per cent of medicinal herbs. Failure would be a disaster for world health as well as the environment." Planet Herbs and the foundation plan to raise £100,000 for grants to encourage scientists, and medicinal plant experts, to carry out a global audit of herbal resources and recommend ways of preserving and expanding them. -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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