The crude drugs which reach the market and pharmaceutical industries will have passed through different stages that have some effect in the nature and amount of active constituents responsible for therapeutic activity. Those stages are to be concerned more in order to make a drug useful to the mankind by all means. This chapter concerns regarding such parameters which has some effect over plants.
Cultivation,
Collection and Processing of Herbal Drugs
INTRODUCTION
The crude drugs which reach the market and pharmaceutical
industries will have passed through different stages that have some effect in
the nature and amount of active constituents responsible for therapeutic
activity. Those stages are to be concerned more in order to make a drug useful
to the mankind by all means. This chapter concerns regarding such parameters
which has some effect over plants.
Cultivation produces improved quality of plants. It helps in
selecting the species, varieties or hybrids that have the desired
phytoconstituents due to the controlled environ-mental growth better plant
product is obtained and makes the collection and processing steps easier when
compared to wild sources. Cultivation results in obtaining plants with maximum
secondary metabolites. It leads to industrialization in the country by the
regular supply of plants. Serves as a useful tool for research purposes.
The advantages of cultivation may be briefly summarized as
follows:
1. It ensures quality and purity of medicinal plants. Crude
drugs derive theirutility from chemical contents in them. If uniformity is
maintained in all operations during the process of cultivation, drugs of
highest quality can be obtained. Cultivation of rhizomes demands an adequate
quantity of fertilizers and proper irrigation. Systematic cultivation results
in raising a crop with maximum content of volatile oil and other constituents.
The examples of ginger, turmeric and liquorice can be cited to illustrate this
point. If the cultivated plants are kept free of weeds, the contami-nation of
crude drugs can be conveniently avoided.
2. Collection of crude drugs from cultivated plants gives a
better yield and therapeutic quality. However, it is a skilled operation and
requires some professional excellence, if the collection of crude drugs for
market is done from cultivated plants by skilled and well-experienced
personnel, the high yield and therapeutic quality of drugs can be maintained.
For example, col-lection of latex from poppy capsules and oleo-resins from
Pinus species, if done by experienced persons, can result in better yield of
crude drugs. Preservation of green colour of senna leaves and minimizing the
deterioration of cardiac glycosides in freshly collected leaves of digitalis
can be achieved only by highly skilled labour.
3. Cultivation ensures regular supply of a crude drug. In
other words, cultivation is a method of crop-planning. Planning a crop
cultivation regularizes its supply and as a result the industries depending
upon crude drugs do not face problem of shortage of raw material.
4. The cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants also
leads to industrialization to a greater extent. The cultivation of coffee and
cocoa in Kerala has given rise to several cottage and small scale industries.
The cultivation of cinchona in West Bengal has led to the establishment of the
cinchona-alkaloid factory near Darjeeling. The government owned opium factory
at Ghaziabad is an eloquent testimony to the significance of well planned
cultivation of poppy.
5. Cultivation permits application of modern technological
aspects such as mutation, polyploidy and hybridization.
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