The Society is appealing to the public for its support and urges people to question their suppliers about the origin of herbs used in remedies and to lobby for the conservation of endangered medicinal plants. The increasing popularity of herbal remedies has put pressure on herb supply with almost 30 per cent of commercially available remedies in the UK containing wild herbs and in some EU countries the quantity increases to close to 60 per cent.

Horticultural director of the Eden Project and advisor to the Herb Society Sue Minter said: “The media has given little emphasis to plants and more to animal parts used in traditional medicine where poaching and breaking trade regulations make compelling headlines. However, to people directly dependent on herbs as a local resource, scarcity and extinction caused by over-collection is a real threat. And those of us who use scarcer products run the risk of consuming adulterants substituted for the real thing - and possibly being poisoned by unscrupulous traders.”

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