Valuation of medicinal plants for pharmaceutical uses

This paper attempts to review the literature and the emerging policy issues on valuation of plant diversity for pharmaceutical uses. Some of the acclaimed valuation works done in the last 15 years (1985–2000) have been considered for this purpose. Their methodologies have been scrutinized, findings evaluated and policy recommendations examined. Since these studies were meant to address different concerns, it is difficult to arrive at a general conclusion. However, the value of a medicinal plant varies from $ 0.2 to $ 340 million per annum. Conservation of biodiversity based on the benefits of medicinal plants or bioprospecting is the subject of dissenting views. A conservation strategy on the basis of the benefits of bioprospecting alone will need detailed area-specific study instead of a general and large landscape valuation.