According to the reports, over 50 percent of prescription drugs prescribed by doctors are derived from chemicals first identified in plants and it could provoke a global healthcare crisis.
In its report Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) said that around 10,000 species of medicinal plants are at risk due to over-collection and deforestation.
"Habit loss, over-population, increasing urbanization, destructive harvesting and agricultural expansion have all contributed to this problem," Belinda Hawkins, author of the report by Botanic Gardens Conservation International, the UK-based charity, told Financial Times
"Up to 15,000 medicinal plants are under threat in the wild and, if no action is taken, some of them could be extinct in under ten years," Hawkins said.
Researchers at BGCI have warned the plants are at the verge of extinction even before cures for certain world's deadliest diseases are found. The fatal diseases include cancer and HIV.
London-based BGCI carried out a survey in 120 countries conducted by 100 botanists found out that many of the species of plants face extinction that cannot be even commercially synthesized.
These plants include yew trees, the bark of which contributes to the formation of the world's most widely used cancer drug, Paclitaxel. The chemicals derived from the bark of the yew trees cannot be commercially synthesized. It takes around six trees to form a single dosage of the cancer drug.
China has seen a steady decline in the number of yew forests. More than 80 percent of the trees were destroyed within a period of three years, according to the report.
The report also stated that almost 70 percent of all newly developed drugs in the U.S. pharmaceutical market comes from the medicinal natural plants.
