Ranjana Sinha*
University Department of Botany, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Received : 20th December, 2023 ; Revised : 20th January, 2024
DOI:-https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14292031
Abstract– Ethnomedicine is the sum of traditional knowledge, skills, health, values, beliefs and practices of tribal communities. For centuries tribal healers have been collecting medicinal plants from forests for the formulation of folk medicines. The tribal people till date used their knowledge based ethnobotanical medicines in the treatment of different ailments. Approximately 88 per cent of people in developing countries rely mostly on ethnobotanical medicines for their primary health care needs. Indigenous knowledge has a significant role in the screening and development of modern medicines. A large number of modern medicines such as ephedrine, digitoxin, tubocurarine and reserpine have been derived from the ethnomedicinal knowledge of tribal peoples. About 75 per cent of the 122 ethnomedicinally important plant-derived bioactive compounds have been scientifically validated. Since these compounds were isolated only from 94 species of plants out of an estimated 250,000 flowering plants, one might imagine the abundance of drugs remaining to be identified from plant kingdom. The scientific validation of active constituents of plants ensures its efficacy, safety and further standardization and development of modern medicines. Growing commercial and scientific interest in ethnomedicine systems has led to calls for traditional medical knowledge to be better recognized, preserved and protected. Hence, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is primarily concerned with protection of ethnomedicinal knowledge in the Intellectual Property (IP) sense against unauthorized use by third parties. A number of ethnomedicinally important Indian plant species and their traditional uses have been patented by different nations. Scientific community and policy makers have complained on this growing trend of patenting of our medicinal plants and their uses. Some of the well-known plants Nigella sativa, Cassia fistula, Curcuma longa, Momordica charantia, Azadirachta indica and Gymnema sylvestre have been patented. However, a number of the patents have been effectively contested by India. This chapter reviews the ethnomedicinal knowledge and its journey through time, which reveals the importance of this traditional wisdom in the modern scenario. This review paper explores the need to document the indigenous knowledge related to ethnomedicinally important plants and their medicinal and other uses to secure patenting rights as well as to discourage other countries for patenting tribal heritage.
Key words: Tribal Medicines, Modern Drug, Intellectual Property, Biopiracy, Patents, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
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