According to an estimate of WHO, 80% of the population in developing countries depends on traditional medicines for their primary health care needs. Traditional medicines owe their popularity to their affordability and the fact that they have no side effects. India ranks second after China among developing countries in export of pharmaceuticals(Table 1.) and is ahead of technologically advanced countries as Mexico, South Korea, Brazil, Israel, etc.

India's share in the patents granted by the US Patents office has tripled from 0.02 percent in 1977-87 period to 0.06 percent during 1996-2000, though the absolute share is very small compared to countries such as Taiwan and South Korea. Emerging comparative advantage of India in pharmaceuticals is apparent from the fact that India's share in World exports of pharmaceuticals has risen by 2.5 times. The top 20 traded medicinal plants are given in Table 2.