Plants for life: - Sacred Seeds Sanctuary

6. Medicinal plants and botanic gardensSome 5,000 years ago, a botanicgarden said to have astounded theSpanish conquistadores existed in thecity of Texcoco, the second mostimportant city in the once majesticAztec empire. Approximately 370species of plants still grow there in aconfined geographical area, thoughthe city and the civilisation have longsince disappeared. Researchconducted at the sight has resulted inthe identification of all the plants thatwould have been cultivated in thegarden, all of which have eithermedicinal properties or othereconomic uses (Montúfar, 2007).The Botanical Garden of Padua,founded in 1545 and one of the oldestbotanic gardens in the world, wascreated by the Vatican Republicpurposely for the cultivation ofmedicinal herbs. The institutionenabled students to use the garden tolearn how to distinguish between anduse medicinal plants, improving bothlocal healthcare and scientificunderstanding. Similarly, the ChelseaPhysic Garden was founded inEngland in 1673 by the WorshipfulSociety of Apothecaries to trainapprentices to identify plants and tohelp in the cultivation of exotic plantsfor medicine. These gardens thus meta research, economic and health goal.These days, there are over 2,500 botanicgardens in 150 countries around theworld, holding over six million accessionsof living plants representing around80,000 species. They are therefore majorrepositories of species diversity andcollectively represent many, many yearsof learning.As institutions, their work remit occupiesseveral spheres; from scientific researchto education to informing legislation torunning community-based projects – andit’s a remit that’s widening in both scopeand importance alongside globalpopulation increase, rapid urbanisationand relentless pressure on our collectivewild resources. Increasingly, botanicgardens are more than just ‘prettyplaces’.Whilst conservation has not been atraditional garden activity, it is becomingmore so, as demonstrated by theInternational Agenda for Botanic Gardensin Conservation (Wyse Jackson andSutherland, 2000) launched in 2000 toprovide a common global framework forgarden policies and signed by 432botanic gardens so far, as well as theinvolvement of botanic gardens in thedevelopment of the GSPC.Botanic gardens have a long-standingconnection to medicinal plants inparticular, since the sole purpose of allearly botanic gardens was to grow andstudy medicinal plants. They areinherently well-placed to respond to thevery specific local conservation needs ofmedicinal plants and the people who relyon them for health and livelihood in aparticular region. Moreover, they areprobably the most important agencies forthe conservation of native medicinalplants, since plants are not often thepriority of other conservation bodies andgovernment agencies related toagriculture pay little attention to thosespecies of undetermined economic use.Using botanical and cultivationknowledge there are a number of keyways in which botanic gardens cancontribute towards medicinal plantconservation and sustainable use.Plants for life: Medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens 15