Economic species
Considered one of the world's most useful trees, almost every part of Moringa oleifera can be used for food, oil, cosmetics, lubrication, flocculant, fertilizer, dye or medicine.
"Economic" botany is the study of plants as they relate to human use. It includes the study of both beneficial and harmful plants, in addition to plant products. Article 10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity advocates sustainable use of components of biological diversity.
Local human populations rely on plants in almost every aspect of their lives, and RBG Kew's SEPASAL database lists over 6000 such plants with uses ranging from land stabilisation, hedging and nitrogen fixation to contraceptives, dyes and cooking utensils.
Products derived from plants in the drylands are also important to people outside arid areas, for example as a source of pharmaceuticals and industrial products such as gums, resins, waxes and oils. There is great scope for many more dryland plants and their products to be developed for human welfare, including those with unique morphological, physiological and chemical adaptations induced by the particular environmental stresses of arid lands. Some of these adaptations, for example salt tolerance and the C4 and CAM mechanisms of photosynthesis, may be valuable sources of material for plant breeding.
The leaves of Tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, are smoked in a cigar or cigarette, smoking pipe, water pipe or hookah.
Other characteristics that confer tolerance to drought, predation and disease are also likely to come from dryland plant defences, which make them important potential sources of insecticides. Using in-country expertise, SEPASAL and other data sources such as the Seed Information Database (SID), several MSBP partners are targeting economically important species as the third priority for collection and ex situ conservation.