Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, Germany.
Department of Geography, Harokopio University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Lancet Planet Health. 2023 Feb;7(2):e155-e163. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00317-5.
Medicinal plants and their bioactive molecules are integral components of nature and have supported the health of human societies for millennia. However, the prevailing view of medicinal biodiversity solely as an ecosystem-decoupled natural resource of commercial value prevents people from fully benefiting from the capacity of nature to provide medicines and from assessing the vulnerability of this capacity to the global environmental crisis. Emerging scientific and technological developments and traditional knowledge allow for appreciating medicinal plant resources from a planetary health perspective. In this Personal View, we highlight and integrate current knowledge that includes medicinal, biodiversity, and environmental change research in a transdisciplinary framework to evaluate natural medicinal resources and their vulnerability in the anthropocene. With Europe as an application case, we propose proxy spatial indicators for establishing the capacity, potential societal benefits, and economic values of native medicinal plant resources and the exposure of these resources to global environmental change. The proposed framework and indicators aim to be a basis for transdisciplinary research on medicinal biodiversity and could guide decisions in addressing crucial multiple Sustainable Development Goals, from accessible global health care to natural habitat protection and restoration.
药用植物及其生物活性分子是自然的组成部分，数千年来一直支持着人类社会的健康。然而，将药用生物多样性仅仅视为具有商业价值的与生态系统脱钩的自然资源的主流观点，使得人们无法充分利用自然提供药物的能力，也无法评估这种能力对全球环境危机的脆弱性。新兴的科学技术发展和传统知识使人们能够从行星健康的角度来欣赏药用植物资源。在这篇个人观点中，我们强调并整合了当前的知识，包括药用、生物多样性和环境变化研究，以在跨学科框架内评估人类世自然药用资源及其脆弱性。我们以欧洲为例，提出了代理空间指标，以评估本地药用植物资源的能力、潜在的社会效益和经济价值，以及这些资源对全球环境变化的暴露程度。拟议的框架和指标旨在成为药用生物多样性跨学科研究的基础，并为解决关键的多个可持续发展目标提供指导，从全球医疗保健的可及性到自然生境的保护和恢复。
