Socio-economic aspects of medicinal plants cultivation

In hill eco-system
D.R. Nag,
Project Officer (MP),
R.I. in I.S.M., Jogindernagar

Introduction

Medicinal Plants are being used for the treatment of disease/ailments of both human
beings and animal since time immemorial. Forest and pasture ranges are the natural herbal
houses of valuable medicinal plant wealth. These medicinal plants are one of the major natural
resource of our country occurring in diverse eco-system. The hill region of our country, which is
known as Himalayas are rich in biodiversity due to the variety of habitat available. The region is
also renowned for the vast store house of medicinal plants. The medicinal plants of hill region are
in great demand around the world for use by pharmaceutical houses, ethno medicinal
practitioners.
Being a hilly state, Himachal Pradesh is rich source of medicinal plants due to varying
degree of agro-climatic zonation from sub-tropical to extreme cold is a bucket of large variety of
medicinal herbs. There is hardly any representative of the medicinal plants of the continent which
is not found in the state except of marine origin. In total out of around 3500 known plant species
recorded in the state, about 500 are of medicinal importance. If we view the whole of the agro-
climatic scenario of the country, this state is a natural house of many rare and very important
temperate medicinal plants species such as Aconitum heterophyllum (Atish), Aconitum
deinorrhizum (Dudhia mohra), Angelica glauca (Chora), Asparagus filicinus (Safed musli),
Berberis aristata (Daru haridra), Bergenia ligulata (Pashan bhed), Dactylorhiza hatagirea
(Salampanja), Dioscorea deltoidea (Singli-mingli), Hedychium acuminata (Kapoor kachri),
Heracicum candicans (Patrala), Picrorhiza kurroa (Kutki), Podophyllum hexandrum (Vankakri),
Polygonatum verticellatum (Meda), Rheum australe (Revandchini), Selinum vaginatum (Moora),
Swertia angustifolia (Chiraita bhed), Taxus baccata (Rakhal), Thymus serphyllum (Van ajwain),
Viola spps. (Vanfsha), Valeriana jatamansi (Sugandhbala).

Market scenario of medicinal plants:

Herbal based products sector is emerging very fast in the present time. A vast national as
well as global market of these products in the form of exports of medicinal plants as 60% in the
world market. Where as India’s share is only 2% despite the fact India has richer diversity.

Nature of Trade:
At present nearly 95% of traded medicinal plants are collected from the wild. Medicinal
plants trade in the country is unorganized. Current practices are unsustainable and unscientific.
To meet out the increasing demand of raw drugs, the plants are uprooted in a large scale.
Temperate region medicinal spps. are in high demand. Due to long gestation period and acute
temperate conditions many of the species become extinct due to heavy exploitation. In most of
cases the extraction is done at the flowering stage or before the bearing and ripening of the
seeds, which leads to the elimination from nature. Thus in the absence of any systematic and
scientific harvesting mechanism many of the species are now in the verge of extinction. The list of
herbs traded from H.P. are given below:

MEDICINAL HERBS TRADED FROM H.P. IN YEAR 1997 -98

(Quantity in quintals)
 Chamba

Rampur
D’shala

Shimla
Mandi
Kullu

Total
CCF
Name of Species

Muskbala/Nihani 76 1506 1 460 136 11 2 2192

Dhoop 103 423 10 152 - 251 404 1343
Chukri/ - 460 - - - 308 15 783
Rewandchini
Brahmi - 40 - - - - 275 315
Patlahan 30 333 - - - - - 363
Tej Patra - - - - 567 - - 567
KaurI Karu 35 54 6 11 - 17 2 125
Dorighas 360 - - 842 61 224 - 1487
Guchhie 1 50 - 299 17 1 158 526
Birch/ Bhoj Patra - - - 6 - - 10 16
Thuth 83 42 - 75 - 93 - 293
Banyan/ Bajh - 47 - - - 33 - 80
Bach 20 - - 360 - - - 380
Bankakri - 43 - - - - - 43
Bhutkesi - 63 - - - - - 63
Discorea - 6 - - - - - 6
Chora - - - 78 11 30 1 120
Tulsi Patters - 40 - 12 - - - 52
Mithi Patties - 30 - 6 - - 1 37
Kakar Singi - 7 - 2 - - 1 10
Salam Misri - - - - - - - -
Banafsha - - - 15 12 - - 27
Others 324 1416 140 2695 6968 1582 1483 14608
Berberis roots - - - - 7790 - - 7790
Total 1032 4560 157 5013 15562 2550 2352 31226

Conservation & cultivation:-

Keeping in view the above facts this sector can play major role for generation of income
& livelihood of the households in Himachal Pradesh. At present the source of valuable temperate
medicinal plants is wild. To consume and save this valuable wealth in nature and also to make
the raw material available for the use, it is essential that these may be brought under cultivation.
The temperate medicinal plants are not only rare in occurrence, but these are also highly
remunerable crops.

Constraints in medicinal plants sector:-

1. Lack of agriculture practices.
2. Indiscriminate harvesting and post-harvesting managements.
3. Lack of genuine germplasm.
 4. Poor processing techniques.
5. Unorganized/ invisible market.
6. Lack of reliable database.
7. Lack of proper regulatory practices for exploitation of medicinal plant.

Remedies:
1. Identification of forest habitats for commercial regeneration & utilization of medicinal
plants.
2. Development of agro-practices and post-harvest techniques.
3. Increasing awareness among peoples regarding bio-diversity, conservation, sustainable
and protective use of plant resource.
4. Involving more people for adopting cultivation of medicinal plants.
5. Creation of market linkage within and out side the state.
6. Creating infrastructure for good manufacturing facilities for processing of medicinal
plants.

Role of Ayurveda:
The Dept of Ayurveda H.P. Govt. being a direct consumer of the herbs & herbal drugs is
quite aware with the magnitude and gravity of the problem of depleting these plants from nature
and hence has drug, cosmetic, extracts, soft drinks, food supplements or as raw material is
available. According to WHO survey report, about 21,000 medicinal plants are used in whole of
the world for the treatment of disease.

(a) Domestic scenario of botanical/medicinal plants:

According to ethno-biological survey conducted by the Ministry of Environment and
Forest, 7500 plants species belong to 386 families and 2200 genera are used by 4635 ethnic
communities for human and veterinary health in the country. The domestic market of medicinal
plant is about of 3 billion, which includes condiments and food additives (14%) herbal extracts
(22%), essential oils, gums resins (19%) and crude drug (45%). Himachal is also the largest
supplier of valuable temperate plants e.g. Kuth, Singli-mingli, dhoop, kutki, Sugandhbala &
Somlata etc. A list of top 20 medicinal plants traded in Indian market is given below:-

TOP 20 Medicinal Plants traded in India

Trade name Botanical name Family Part used Common name

ATIS* Aconitum RANUNCULACEAE Tuberous Atis
heterophyllum roots
Wall. Ex Royle
MEETHA TELIA/ Aconitum RANUNCULACEAE Tuberous -
BACHNAG* violoceum Roots
(Jacq.) Stapf
SAFED MUSLI Chlorophytum LlLlACEAE Tubers Biskandri,
borivilianum Safed musli
Sant. &
Fernendez
GUGGUL Commiphora BURSERACEAE Resin Guggul
wightii (A.)
Bhandari
MAMIRA/ Coptis teeta RANUNCULACEAE Roots Coptis,
MISHMI Wall. goldthread,
BITTER* mishmee-bitter
SALAMPANJA/ Dactylorhiza ORCHIDACEAE Fruits Baiberang,
SALEP* hatahirea Wawrung
(D.Don.) Soo
VIDANGAI Emblia ribes MYRSINACEAE Fruits Baiberang,
BAIBARANGA Burm. f. Wawrung
NAGKESAR Mesua CLUSIACEAE Dry stamens Nagkesar,
nagassarium nagesar
(Burm. F.)
Kosterm
RAMPATRI / Myristica MYRISTICACEAE Aril & Mace Van-jayphal
BOMBAY MACE malabarica
Lam.
JATAMANSI* Nardostachys VALERIANACEAE Rhizomes & Jatamansi,
grandiflora DC roots balchir
GAOZABAN Onosma BORAGINACEAE Flowers Gaozaban
bracteatum
Wall.
KUTKI* Picrorhiza SCROPHULARIACEAE Roots & Kuru, Kutki
kurroa RoyIe rhizomes
ex Benth
KAKRA-SINGI* Pistacia ANACARDIACEAE Galls Kakra-singi
integerrima
Stewart ex
Brandis
SARPAGANDHA Rauwolfia APOCYNACEAE Roots Chandrabhaga
serpentina Chota-chand
Benth. ex Kutz
MANJISHTA Rubia cordifolia RUBIACEAE Roots Manjit, Manjith
Linn.
CHANDANA/ Santalum SANTALACEAE Heartwoood Safed-chandan,
SANDALWOOD album Linn. Sandal
CHOCHINI Smilax glabra SMILACACEAE Roots Barichob-chini
GULABI Roxb.
CHIRAIYITA* Swertia GENTIANACEAE Whole plant Chirayita
chirayita Karst.
TAGGAR/ Valeriana VALERIANACEAE Rhizomes & Taggar, Nihani,
MUSKBALA* hardwickii Wall. roots Asarun
BANAFSHA Viola pilosa VIOLACEAE Flowers Banafsha
Blume

Note: * - Plants traded from temperate zone of Himachal Pradesh

(b) Global scenario:

According to survey report of the WHO at present about 100 crores of world population
relies on the plant based health care systems and their numbers increasing day-by-day. Annual
global market of medicinal plants is about $65 billion and increasing about 16% every year. At
present India’s exports is of 446 crores only and is expected to be raised 3000 crores by the end
of 2005. While, China

undertake a comprehensive project on the conservation and cultivation of high altitude medicinal
plants. This programme is being executed from the Research Institute in ISM, Joginder Nagar,
Mandi H.P. To take care of different aspects of medicinal plants like survey, collection, utilization,
conservation & cultivation, Training awareness & extension activities. At this center one
Ayurvedic herbarium is also set for the documentation of different samples of raw herbs for
identification. For conducting research & development activity on medicinal plant, department has
set up Herbal Gardens in different agro-climatic zone to raise the germplasm of genuine
medicinal plant spps. and also to develop the agro-techniques of medicinal plants.
Conclusion:
Himachal Pradesh being a hilly state has rich medicinal plant diversity and is the largest supplier
of temperate medicinal plants/crude drugs is disorganized and state has no market of its own.
People collect the usable parts from the wild source and sell it through middle man of the
business parties of big market like Delhi, Amritsar, Saharanpur etc. on low price. The entire
pressure is on the wild source and only few crops like kuth, kala jira, Kesar & Hops are cultivated.
For the creation of employment to the people of H.P. at their door step this valuable wealth can
be exploited on scientific & sustainable basis. More & more crops should be brought under
cultivation to is the pressure on the wild source and fulfill the requirement of pharmaceutical
industries. If judicious exploitation of medicinal plants is coupled with organized market, H.P.
state become pioneer in the Herbal Industry.

YUZ