Climate change is quietly erasing one of humanity’s oldest healthcare systems. Across continents, medicinal plants that traditional healing systems have relied on for centuries are vanishing, threatening the primary healthcare of millions who depend on natural remedies for survival. Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall, deforestation and overharvesting are pushing these plants toward extinction, breaking a fragile link between nature, culture and medicine.
In the high mountains of Nepal’s Lo Manthang region, traditional healer Gyatso Bista remembers a time when sacks of kutki, a bitter herb used to treat fever, coughs and liver ailments, arrived in abundance from nearby hills. Decades ago, harvests touched nearly 40 kilograms. Today, barely five kilograms can be found. Bista is among the last practitioners of Sowa Rigpa, a Tibetan healing system practiced for over 2,500 years, and his experience mirrors a crisis unfolding worldwide.
More than 80 percent of the global population relies on traditional medicine for primary healthcare. Yet many of the plants forming the backbone of these systems are declining rapidly, unable to adapt to fast-changing climatic conditions.
Shrinking habitats and shifting seasons
A global review published in *Frontiers in Pharmacology* found that climate change has reduced suitable habitats for nearly one-third of the medicinal plant species studied. Many species are being forced to migrate to higher altitudes or new regions, while others face outright extinction. In the Himalayas, healers report climbing higher each year to find herbs that once thrived in valleys. In Ghana, prolonged droughts are wiping out plants used for generations. In Panama, Indigenous midwives say essential birthing herbs are becoming increasingly scarce.
Changing weather patterns are also altering plant life cycles. Flowering and fruiting times have shifted by weeks in some regions, disrupting traditional harvesting practices rooted in cultural and spiritual calendars. For mountain species already growing at high elevations, warming temperatures leave them with nowhere left to move.
When medicine loses its potency
Climate change is not only affecting where medicinal plants grow, but also how they heal. Scientists warn that extreme heat, drought and elevated carbon dioxide levels are altering the chemical composition of plants. These changes can weaken or alter their medicinal properties.
Researchers have observed shifts in essential oils of herbs like lavender and rosemary in southern Europe, where hotter and drier summers have reduced healing compounds and changed aromas. Similar chemical imbalances have been documented in plants such as pennyroyal and olive trees, raising concerns that traditional remedies may no longer work as expected.
Traditional healers as scientists
For Indigenous and local communities, the loss of medicinal plants is not just ecological it is cultural. Traditional healers describe their knowledge as the result of centuries of careful experimentation and observation. Many modern medicines, including widely used anti-inflammatory drugs, trace their origins to such traditional practices.
In Samoa, scientific studies confirmed that a traditional plant-based remedy reduces inflammation as effectively as ibuprofen. Researchers working with healers stress that traditional medicine is not folklore, but a form of empirical science refined across generations.
Medicinal plants are deeply woven into identity, language and spirituality. In parts of Africa and South America, village names and family histories are tied to healing trees and herbs. As these species disappear, entire cultural narratives risk being erased. Communities warn that losing the environment means losing knowledge, history and ways of life that cannot be recovered.
Across the world, communities and researchers are racing against time to preserve both plants and traditional knowledge. In Nepal, healers are identifying alternative species to replace endangered herbs. In Panama, shamans have documented local medicinal plants to protect knowledge for future generations. In Brazil’s Cerrado region, healers and scientists have jointly created pharmacopoeias to safeguard traditional remedies.
Scientists are also calling for stricter harvesting regulations, cultivation of medicinal plants on farms, seed banks to preserve genetic diversity, and better tracking of plant trade to prevent overexploitation. Integrating traditional knowledge with modern conservation policies is increasingly seen as essential.
Experts warn that the question is no longer whether climate change will affect traditional medicine, but how quickly societies can adapt to protect it. Medicinal plants represent both humanity’s past and its future offering affordable healthcare today and potential cures tomorrow.
As climate change reshapes ecosystems, the disappearance of these healing plants stands as a reminder that environmental loss is also a human health crisis. Whether future generations inherit this living pharmacy may depend on how urgently the world acts to protect what has healed it for centuries.