Academia Journal of Medicinal Plants 6(7): 168-177, July 2018 DOI: 10.15413/ajmp.2018.0133 ISSN 2315-7720 ©2018 Academia Publishing Research Paper Cultivation of medicinal plants in South Africa: A solution to quality assurance and consistent availability of medicinal plant materials for commercialization Tanga M1, Lewu FB2*, Oyedeji OA3, Accepted 23rd July, 2018 Oyedeji OO4 1Department of Environmental and ABSTRACT Occupational studies, Faculty of Applied Science, Cape Peninsula University of Medicinal plants are plants which have been identified to have healing properties Technology, P O Box 652, Cape Town and their cultivation recently is gaining popularity due to the increasing 8000, South Africa 2Department of Agriculture, Faculty of preference towards plant-based products as a source of primary health care in Applied Science, Cape Peninsula both developing and developed countries. Cultivation of medicinal plant is a University of Technology, Wellington mitigative measure towards biodiversity conservation and also a viable alternative Campus P O Box X8, Wellington 7654, to overcome problems that are inherent to medicinal plant materials for quality South Africa 3Department of Chemical and Physical assurance and availability for commercialization. However, this is accompanied Sciences, Faculty of Natural Science, with some challenges of plant adaptation to new environment, disease Walter Sisulu University of Science and susceptibility, labour cost and net return. The use of good propagation techniques Technology, P/Bag X1 Mthatha 5099, is imperative to overcome the challenges associated with the production of South Africa 4Department of Chemistry, Faculty of secondary metabolites of interest to our herbal and pharmaceutical industries and Science and Agriculture, University of the implementation of good regulatory policy for safety and quality of medicinal Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa. plants products of standard is critical. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: 0218645213; Key words: Medicinal plants, cultivation, quality, secondary metabolites, 27725515617. commercialization. INTRODUCTION Plants have been of great importance as a source of than 85% of herbal medicines used in traditional health medicine since the time of human civilization and since care systems are derived from different parts of medicinal then their products are being used for different purposes plants (Phondani et al., 2014). such as food, shelter, clothing, health care and as In this regard, there has been an increasing interest agrochemicals (Kamble et al., 2010). worldwide in traditional system of medicine including Plant materials used for medicine include the active South Africa, with substantial increase in the use of herbal- ingredients of roots, stems, leaves, seeds and barks of trees derived medicines, supplements and cosmetics in in various combinations (Ngarivheme et al., 20015). communities (Fisk et al., 2014). Medicinal plants are plants that have healing properties In the recent decades, there has been an indiscriminate and contain mixtures of phytochemicals (Secondary harvesting, over-grazing and uncontrolled metabolites) that may act individually, additively or commercialization of medicinal plant species from the wild synergistically used to treat some illnesses (Mohammed (Barata et al., 2011). Indiscriminate harvesting of medicinal and Mundanthra, 2013). plants has led to an increasing trend in habitat loss locally Presently, medicinal plants are gaining popularity and globally due to environmental degradation and globally as a source of raw material for pharmaceuticals encroachment of alien invasive species which are adversely and traditional health care systems (Kandari et al., 2012). affecting the availability of medicinal plant in the wild According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about (Phondani et al., 2016). 80% of the world population relies (solely or partially) on In South Africa, millions of people in both rural and urban traditional medicine for their primary health care and more communities mostly rely on traditional medicine for their Academia Journal of Medicinal Plants; Tanga et al. 169 primary health care needs due to their easy accessibility importation (US$462.8 million) and exportation and affordability of plant materials with good knowledge (US$1034.8 million) of medicinal plants into Europe and know-how amongst the local communities between the period 1991 to 2002. In the last three decades, (Mahomoodally, 2013; Oliver, 2013). This is increasingly there has been a substantial growth in herb and herbal putting pressure on wild population with little or no product markets across the world. According to the mitigative measures like medicinal plant cultivation that Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the may enhance quality, quantity, biomass production and global sales of herbal products were estimated to be quality control measures such as monitoring of metabolites US$60,000 million in 2002 (Food and Agricultural production and optimization of production techniques. Organization, 2007). Every year, about five hundred thousand tons of dried medicinal plants are traded internationally, with Importance of medicinal plants substantial quantities in South Africa’s national and local markets. More than 50% of the plants are harvested from Plants are the primary source of all medicines in the world the wild, and the demand for these materials keeps and provide mankind with new remedies (Beyene et al., increasing (Traffic International, 2015). The utmost form of 2016). traditional medicine has always remained the use of herbs Medicinal plants are the “backbone” of traditional which are highly lucrative in the international market. The medicine and are considered to have some important annual revenue of Western Europe between 2003 and 2004 ingredients which can be used in drug development and was US$ 5 billion (Chaudhary et al., 2010). synthesis. They play a critical role in the development of The trade in pharmaceutical plants is dominated by only human cultures around the world and also have a a few countries with three international trade centers; promising future because there are millions of plants Germany, USA, and Hong Kong. Twelve countries make up around the world with yet to be discovered medicinal 80% of both the exports and imports from the world activities (Singh, 2015). market. The major markets are in the developed countries, Traditional systems of medicine have become a topic of while the bulk of pharmaceutical plants are exported from global importance during the past decade. Presently, in developing countries, not or only little processed from many developing countries, a large proportion of the developing countries and they are of wild origin (Barata et population rely heavily on traditional practitioners, who al., 2011). The trade also contributes as a source of revenue uses exclusively medicinal plant materials for treatment of to millions of families involved in medicinal plants various illnesses on the account that medicinal plants are collection, with women often playing the major role of curative with no side effects (Rasool, 2012). supplying medicinal plant materials to pharmaceutical Although there may be the availability of orthodox industries. Although accurate data is lacking, available medicine in these countries, herbal medicines have always information indicates that trade is increasingly growing upheld fame popularity for historical and cultural reasons especially in Europe where 90% of commercially used (Hosseinzadeh et al., 2015; Vishwakarma et al., 2013). medicinal plant materials are collected from the wild Medicinal plants have many different characteristics. (Traffic International, 2015). When used in the treatment of diseases, it can be synergic, In South Africa, medicinal plant trade is a large and supportive and preventive (Rasool, 2012). At the moment, growing industry. It operates in both the formal and there is an increasing interest in the field of research on the informal sectors of the economy which involves a few metabolomics profile of medicinal plant species due to the stakeholders in the Eastern Cape but a greater number of remarkable diversity of both chemical and biological commercial harvesters from Kwa-Zulu Natal, Gauteng and activities of naturally occurring secondary metabolites Western Cape provinces (Williams, 2004). present in different plant species. This has led to the development of novel and sensitive techniques to detect some of these biologically active ingredients with improved Over-harvesting of medicinal plants isolation techniques to meet human’s medicinal needs (Hosseinzadeh et al., 2015). Medicinal plants are being harvested in increasing volume from the wild population all over the world creating pressure on plant diversity and population in the wild. In Trade in medicinal plants the recent decades, the demand for medicinal plants has increased from 8 to 15% per year in Europe, North Generally, every year more than 500,000 tons of plant America, and Asia (Ross, 2005; Bentley, 2010). materials of about 60,000 plant species are traded based on Furthermore, over 25% of prescribed medicines in their medicinal, nutritional and aromatics properties developed countries are derived from wild plant species (WHO. 2015). According to Barata et al. (2011), there has and up to 80% of people in developing countries are totally been a significant increase in the dependent on herbal medicine for their primary