When Max Wain, the founder of Growing Planet, first asked me to write a couple of pages about herbal medicine and the planet's forests, I thought that it would be a quick and easy exercise. After all, anyone interested in herbal medicine the way that I am can easily rationalize the need to preserve the world's forests. It seemed obvious, at first, that the forests of the world provide so many beneficial plants, that I wasn't really sure why he thought it needed to be spelled out. In the interest of Keep It Short & Simple, I'll only outline a few of the most compelling reasons that come immediately to mind.

The first question that everyone asks me about herbal medicine is: does it work? Well, since I operate a clinic using herbal medicinal to treat people and teach herbal medicine at a local acupuncture college, obviously I think so. For those who are somewhat more skeptical, then umber's support this assertion.

Depending on what source you want to believe, somewhere between 25% to 60% of the drugs currently in use today were developed from plants. Some of the higher numbers reflect a world view, because many plant-derived medicines exist outside of the United States but have not yet been approved by the USDA.

Examples are easy to site. I always like to start with aspirin. There are few people that would access this article on the Internet that haven't used aspirin. This widely used drug was developed by isolating a chemical compound from a plant that has been widely used in western herbalism; White Willow bark. Other examples run from the mundane to the exotic. Taxol, which is used to fight ovarian cancer and malignant melanoma, is processed from the Pacific Yew. Dioscorea, a type of yam, is the source for some contraceptives and progesterone creams. Â Digitalis, which is used in congestive heart failure patients to improve cardiac contractions, comes from Foxglove. Even the mucus secreted by the African clawed frog contains very powerful anti-microbial peptides. The list can be exhaustive and, considering that only about 5% of the worlds plant species have actually been studied for their pharmacological potential, that list is potentially endless.

When I espouse the virtues of plant based medicine, I am often confronted with the question: why do we need to pursue plant-derived medicines at all? Well, the answer (like so many things) is a two-edged sword. There are so many diseases for which there is little or no satisfactory treatment. Surely, there is, as of yet, little viable treatment available for diseases such as; cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, HIV or hepatitis. What if ingesting some plant inhibited the ability of a cancerous tumor to draw blood supply from a patient, effectively choking the tumor to death. What if consuming some plant helped maintain lower blood sugar, helping delay many of the complications of diabetes? What if you or someone in your family had one of these diseases? You would want someone to make those plant materials available. You certainly wouldn't want the habitat where these plants grow to be destroyed.

Considering how many medicines have been developed from plants combined with the fact that the vast majority of species live in our planets forests, the rate of deforestation that has taken place is nothing short of alarming. How many lifesaving medicines will never be discovered because the forests that house them were wiped out before anyone had a chance to discover them? This isn't only about the search for a miracle cure for some currently untreatable disease. The drugs that we have relied on for the past 60 years are becoming obsolete.

One can hardly pick up a medical journal these days without someone raising the alarm. Plagues, like tuberculosis, that seemed controlled 40 years ago are now returning in growing numbers and the term "drug-resistant" is becoming the catch phrase of the day. As the widespread use and misuse of antibiotics has proliferated around the world, resistant strains of bacteria and parasites are becoming the norm. When one considers the population density of some cities, it is only a matter of time before some epidemic strikes and there will be no known drug to fight it. That drug may be in the bark of a tree growing in Guatemala or the seeds of a flower that is blooming in Indonesia right at this moment.

When we discuss and argue the need for preservation and replenishment, the discussion usually centers around an ecosystem or an isolated species that acts as a metaphor for the health of a region. However, lets not forget that one of the indigenous species in these areas is the people that have inhabited them for perhaps millennia. These are the very women and men who already know, through oral tradition, which plants have medicinal values. In our search for new drugs, it seems infinitely more practical to learn from these indigenous people which plants have a curative effect and for what diseases. When these areas are invaded and deforested, the children and grandchildren of these sages lose all interest in learning the craft. There is no telling how much herbal lore has already been lost due to the displacement and subsequent loss of culture of these people.