Medicinal Plants : Traded on South African’s Eastern Seaboard

Details

Over 70 per cent of our population relies almost totally on traditional medicine for the curing of ailments. It is not generally known that the South African trade in medicinal or muthi plants is worth some R270-million a year. In the Duran area alone some 4000 tonnes of plants or parts thereof are sold annually. As a result of this demand and the subsequent virtual denudation of plants in the wild, The Silverglen Medicinal Plant Nursery was established in 1986 where propagation and education is the prime objective. 15 years of collective knowledge and training at Silverglen Nursery by the authors of this publication, together with a number of other incredibly knowledgeable botanists, has produced an educational book which will fill the important gap in identification of those plants most in demand, thereby assisting the cause of reducing the rape of the wild for muthi plants. (extract from for the Foreward by ED Scarr, Director of Parks, eThekwini Municipality: 2002)

The publication covers 338 species, divided into chapters headed

1. Whole Plants

2. Fruits and Seed

3. Climbers and Creepers

4. Succulents

5. Barks, Stems and Leaves

6. Underground Parts

The eleven introductory pages provide informative insight to

Why a guide to market plants?

Geographic scope

Maps

Identification and naming

 Family names

 Latin plant names

 Common names

 Vernacular names

Growth form, Distinguishing characteristics, Habitat, Red Data List categories and Legal Status