Indian Herbal Drug Industry: Challenges and Future Prospects

Natural plant products are a source of new chemical compounds and are the choice of today’s human race. There is strong evidence that natural plant products play a significant role in the livelihoods of the rural poor population of the world especially tribal communities in many countries like India. There have been increasing trends in the trade of plant products and their extraction at industrial level, particularly that of medicinally important products. A high trade status of natural plant products at global, national as well as regional level can improve the economy of a nation. It is estimated that 25% people of the most of the countries depend on the plant resources for their livelihood. About 80% of the people living in developing countries depend on non-timber plant products, the most used being medicines and edibles. India is a major exporter of medicinal plants and is estimated that raw materials and drug from medicinal plants of 860 million are exported annually from India. In India, more than 41 million tribals and forest dwellers derive their earnings from these products. India is one of the major exporters of crude drugs mainly to the six developed nations (about 75% of the total exports). The present study gives the detailed account of dependence of rural people especially forest dwellers on medicinal plants for their livelihood in India which are supplied to pharmaceutical industries for the development of various drugs and highlights the present scenario of drug trade in India.