AM: focus on the role and protection of medicinal plants

By: Trademagazin Date: 2026. 03. 03. 11:30

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On March 3, we celebrate World Wildlife Day, the aim of which this year is to draw attention to the role of medicinal and aromatic plants in ensuring human health, cultural heritage, local livelihoods and human well-being – the Ministry of Agriculture (AM) wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

Numerous medicinal plants are also collected in our country and are also produced on approximately 30 thousand hectares. Due to its prominent role in folk medicine, for example, the Great Plain chamomile flora has been a Hungarikum since 2015, the AM highlighted.

This year’s event presents the diversity of these species, their impact on science, and also draws attention to the increasing pressure caused by habitat loss, overexploitation, and climate change.

The ministry highlighted that medicinal and aromatic plants are essential for both human health and ecological balance. They are of particular importance in developing countries, where 70-95 percent of the population relies on traditional medicine for primary care and are the direct or indirect active ingredients of many medicines.

In addition to their medicinal uses, they also provide an extremely important ecosystem service through their use in the cosmetics, food and luxury goods industries, soil stabilization, biodiversity enhancement and provision of essential food sources for pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

The statement also mentioned that medicinal plants as genetic resources and the traditional knowledge associated with them are used in many areas in agriculture, medicine and conservation, and that sharing these benefits directly supports the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) more

One in five people rely on wild plants, algae and fungi for food and income, so their global trade is significant. The European market for herbal supplements and medicines alone is estimated to be worth $7.4 billion a year.

An estimated 50,000-70,000 medicinal and aromatic plants are cultivated worldwide, but more than 20 percent of them are on the verge of extinction. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) lists approximately 1,500 such plants, of which almost 800 species, including American ginseng and the snowdrop, which also occurs in our country, are listed in CITES Appendix II.

Collection has brought several species, such as the Indian dwarf thistle, to the brink of extinction. This species now enjoys the strictest protection of Appendix I of CITES, and international trade in wild-collected plants is prohibited.

The Ministry of Agriculture, as the CITES Management Authority, is responsible for ensuring that international trade in wild animals and plants is legal, traceable and sustainable, and does not endanger their survival – AM wrote.