| Method |
The red line in Fig. 8B represents the
maximum ratio of the number of medicinal plants to the number of wild plants, which is 0.35, with
an estimated average ratio of 0.13 (slope represented by black line). Therefore, assuming 223,300
plant species exist on Earth, the estimated number of medicinal plants ranges from 29,029 (223,300×0.13) to 78,155 (223,300×0.35), and the estimated number of metabolites expected to have some
efficacy in human ranges from 136,436 (29,029×4.7) to 367,328 (78,155×4.7). |