Stop Taking The Herbs!

Another highlight from the BA Festival of Science. It seems all those anti-science alties who are all so green and organic and hate the evils of technology are doing a fine job of destroying species.

"People who sell drugs from plants need to provide evidence that their plant products were obtained from cultivated or sustainable sources," Dr Sarah Edwards told the BA Festival of Science today. "Consumers of herbal medicines may inadvertently be complicit in the overexploitation of threatened plant species," she said. Many medicinal plant species are under threat from over-exploitation. [...] It is not only in developing countries that these issues arise. American ginseng, the third most popular medicinal plant sold in US health stores, is largely cultivated. However people believe that the wild root is more efficacious. It is in high demand, fetches higher prices and is being collected unusustainably. [...] Increasing market pressure and consequent over-exploitation of plants is being compounded by dramatic habitat loss, environmental degradation, and the potential threat from global warming.