Table 3 The advantages and disadvantages of wild resource versus cultivated medicinal plant species
From: Conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants: problems, progress, and prospects
Characteristics | Wild resource | Cultivated species |
|---|---|---|
Advantages | It is open access resource without investment | It relieves harvesting pressure on rare and threatened species |
It is natural resource and free from pesticides | It can keep genotypes being standardized or improved | |
Wild resource is supposed to be more efficacious | It guarantees continuing supply of raw medicinal materials | |
Production volume and price can be stable for longer periods | ||
Disadvantages | Wild resource is becoming scarce and threatened by over-harvesting | It needs substantial investment before and during production |
There exists a risk of adulterations and resource exhaustion | It narrows genetic diversity in gene pool of wild populations | |
Uncontrolled harvesting leads to the extinction of ecotype and species | Reintroduced plants can cause genetic pollution of wild resource | |
There is a lack of resource inventories and related management practices | Cultivated species may have negative impacts on ecosystems | |
There is a lack of successful cultivation techniques for some species |