Abstract

Consumption of herbal medicines is widespread and increasing. Harvesting from the wild, the main source of raw material, is causing loss of genetic diversity and habitat destruction. However, major large of the wild is harvested by poor households in developing countries. Current research results showed that cultivated populations could maintain relative high genetic diversity of their wild ancestors. So, on-farm conservation may be an effective way to conserve genetic diversity of medicinal plants. On the other hand, the quality of cultivated products could be confirmed if they were domesticated under good agricultural practice. Therefore, domestic cultivation with special domestication pattern may satisfy the needs for developing countries to conserve genetic diversity of medicinal plants and at the same time to guarantee the sustainable utilization under the pressure of local economy.

Key words: Domestic cultivation, genetic diversity conservation, medicinal plants, sustainable utilization.