'Protect local herbal medicine knowledge'.

(From Gulf News)

Byline: A Staff Reporter

An expert on alternative medicine warns that there is a danger of losing knowledge of herbal medicine built up over the thousands of years in the Middle East region.

"You have a heritage of herbal medicine which is deep and profound," said Professor Kim Jobst, noting that about 80 per cent or more of Islamic herbal pharmacopoeia is in danger of being lost.

He said, quoting a local herbalist, that people could lose the knowledge, the literature, the method of identification and preparation of herbal drugs. "This is knowledge built up over hundreds of thousands of years. It is events such as these …