IN MADAGASCAR, people trek through the bush for three days to strip valuable
bark from the rare Prunus africana tree. On the slopes of Mount Cameroon, locals
have been felling P. africana at eight times the rate of regrowth, to sell bark
to a French company. At this rate the tree will be extinct within a decade, say
experts in wildlife trade. So at last week鈥檚 CITES meeting, P. africana, along
with 13 other plants, was given new protection by the convention. The move
signals increasing concern over trade in medicinal plants.
The bark of P. africana contains an ingredient that reverses what Africans
call 鈥渙ld man鈥檚 disease鈥濃�攖he swelling of the prostate gland. It is the
basis of an ancient African remedy that in the 1960s was patented by a Frenchman
as pygeum. Nobody has identified the active compound, so chemists can鈥檛
synthesise it. As a result, $220 million worth of the powdered bark is
sold every year to ageing men in Europe and North America.
鈥淢en are about to lose this remedy,鈥� warns Tony Simons at the Nairobi-based
International Centre for Research in Agroforestry. The trees take 15 years to
regrow. Eventually Simons hopes to shorten this cycle through 鈥渕arcotting鈥�, a
technique that induces roots to grow from a cut branch, and grow the tree as a
sustainable crop.
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P. africana is one of thousands of plants whose roots, leaves, bark, latex or
fruit are harvested for traditional and herbal medicines. Some remedies have
become worldwide brands such as ginseng. International trade in these products
is an estimated 500 000 tonnes a year, worth $1.5 billion.
Following last week鈥檚 meeting, 20 plants are now protected by the convention
for their medicinal qualities. Asian ginseng is one of the newcomers to the
list. But merely listing the plants may not be enough. 鈥淚mplementation is in
many cases non-existent,鈥� says Nina Marshall of the wildlife trade investigation
organisation TRAFFIC.
