31.   The longtime chief of medicinal plant research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Duke is one of the foremost American experts in botanical medicine.

32.   The new research greatly expands previous efforts to find medicinal plants.

33.   The problem, he said, is that in most places medicinal plants are still harvested in the wilderness, not grown on farms or on plantations.

34.   This time, native people and host countries will participate in the projects and command a large share of any economic benefits from the medicinal plants.

35.   But the government looks the other way as tens of thousands of men continue their ancient livelihood of hunting for food and gathering medicinal plants.

36.   China has rich resources of medicinal plants and animals and a long tradition of using natural drugs, said Wei Jiewei of the National Center for Biotechnology Development.

37.   Dr Ferdousi said old people and mentally retarded persons who are incapable of doing heavy physical labour could be employed for preserving medicinal plants.

38.   Dwindling sources of medicinal plants and animals makes healers worry about preserving and replenishing them.

39.   Foreign companies have used Indian medicinal plants like turmeric and neem to obtain patents, Sahai said.

40.   If we were sick, we could pick medicinal plants.