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Abstract
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Herbal products derived from medicinal plants (MPs), are universally valuable; but they are disappearing rapidly. Population growth, overexploitation, environmental destruction, illegal trade and unsound harvesting techniques are constantly threatening MPs resources, resulting in extinction. The purpose of this paper is to provide a trustworthy reference for the sustainable application and conservation of MPs resources and methodologies so that they can be implemented and conserved. In order to calculate for the sustainable application of MPs resources, both resource management (e.g. good sustainable use solutions and agricultural practices) and conservation strategies (e.g. in situ and ex situ cultivation) should be sufficiently taken into account. We recommend that biotechnical approaches (e.g. micro-propagation, tissue culture, molecular marker and synthetic seed technology based approaches) should be applied to ameliorate yield and shift the power of MPs.
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