The ‘Herbal
Industry’ including AYUSH manufacturing industries, Nutrition and supplementation
industry, Personal care industry are using a wide range of plant parts derived
from trees, shrubs, climbers and herbs and even grasses. Herbal Extraction and
Phytopharmaceutical industries also use medicinal plants.
Demand:
The demand for these plant parts are also
growing year after year owing to the increased number of Medical practitioners
of Ayurveda Siddha and Unani systems of
medicine, opening of ISM wings in Govt. Primary Health Centres under National Rural
Health Mission, opening of centers in ESI hospitals and not to talk of private
ayurvedic hospitals and spas. The Social Media has also popularized Indian
herbs and their benefits across the globe and these products are sought after.
Large scale use
of Indian Medicine promoted by Govt. of Tamilnadu has become a trend in
epidemics like Dengue, Swine flu, Malaria has further accelerated demand for
medicinal plants. Demand for Siddha medicines like; Nilavembu Kudineer’ – the
sudden increase to the tune of 400 crores in one year and National brands like
Patanjali has further enhanced demands for herbal material. The spiraling cost
of the Ayurvedic ,Siddha drugs is also due to this non-availability and demand
Quality parameters
The industries
need to comply by the quality standards for herbal material prescribed by the Pharmacopeias
of Siddha and Ayurveda . The key quality parameters for herbs are
·
Moisture – 5- 6%
·
Foreign material – Even the plant part other than
required -1-2%
·
Microbial limits – Nil for pathogen, yeast and mould
Not More Than 1000 Colonies per unit
·
Heavy metals- Lead, arsenic, mercury – NMT 10PPM
·
Ash content – 2-6%
·
Assay for Phyto constituents
Most of the above can be tested in a small laboratory created as common
facility, close to a growing area, particularly in a cluster approach. Adopting
Good agricultural practice or Good collection practices if collected from wild
will ensure quality.
Source of crude drugs
a) Wild collection
Till a decade
ago materials were collected from wild, not just forest but from barren lands,
agricultural land margins, lake and pond bunds and Road side. Currently owing
to the factor that declaration of more forest areas as wild life areas and no
harvest zone, wild collection is getting increasingly limited. Moreover since
there is a shrinkage on availability and the need to travel to far flung places
to collect the same amount of medicinal plants which where colled earlier,The
forest dependent communities collect less from the wild as younger generation
is not interested as it is not very remunerative. Collectors do not have
facility to clean, grade and store the material properly so they immediately
sell to traders at whatever price they offer.Contamination happens with
pathogens due to human, cattle excreta, heavy metal contamination is caused in
the wild near industrial area, from soil and drying in the roads without proper
drying facility
The agents among
the collectors source it and send it to traders (some handle selected items
only region wise), while traders in cities who have contact with traders and
exporters buy from all regions and also get from traders in other states.
.
b) Cultivation
Only few species
are cultivated that too for exports and Phytopharmaceutical extraction
companies. They include herbs like Gloriosa superb, Coleus forskholli,
Passiflora incarnate, Cassia aungustifolia etc., Exporters mostly depend on
cultivation for large quantity material and rely less on wild collection. The
increasing demand is not completely met by cultivation as of now. Very often
Industry organizations like Ayurvedic Drug Maunfacturers Association, Ayurvedic
Manufacturers Association in Kerala (The largest producing state of Ayurveda
Products next only to Gujarat) raise the issue of non-availability of herbs.
However agrotechnology and agroeconomics have been already worked out for close
to 50 herbs among the 170 which are frequently used by the industries.
c) Procurement from outside
The
manufacturers from the AYUSH and Phytopharma industry get the crude drugs from
other states – Dehradun in Uttarkhand, Amristar in Punjab Chattisgargh, Madhya
Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh. In most cases the Forest department corporations or
Tribal development department run organizations help tribals to collect and
market their produce/ wild collection
Many ingredients
including dry ginger, Guggul , Licorice are imported from other countries.
Ports in Gulf
region, Indonesia, Singapore are the hubs for import.
Phyto-sanitary
certification is done by Plant quarantine and storage dept. of Ministry of
agriculture
.
Things to be done
a)
Planning for consistent supply of quality raw material to industry is based on proper assessment of demand
supply from the traders, manufacturers and exporters. A Survey needs to done (
Not a passive survey seeking information sitting in one place) A systemic
planning and spreading the list of species to be grown will help not only the
Industries but the growers too.
Once tree growing is promoted for the land margins and if each farmer
in a cluster grows the same five species, consolidation and procurement will be
easier. In areas where silvyculture is taken up, intercropping of medicinal
plants, climbers in particular will provide remuneration to growers in medium
and short term till returns come from the trees. Since most of the crude plant
drugs are bulk and transport cost being high, it is better to cultivate plants which
can be sold in the local region or at best in the three southern states.
The choice of plants should be based on the ones used by a wide range
of industries and not confined to the needs of one or two industries. That is
where contract farming has failed. But for plants which are exported either raw
or after processing by extraction industry, large scale cultivation has been
successful – Coleus, Gloriosa and Senna if only grown by the limited contracted
farmers.
Most the plants that are listed as in high demand and frequently used
by multiple manufacturers or exporters can be grown in different agroclimatic
zones of Tamil Nadu. A judicious mixture of them if cultivated in limited area,
marketing would not be a problem. But since most industries in this sector in
Tamil Nadu are PSU or cooperatives or Trust they go by tender and lowest
quotation and require at least few plants to be grouped and supplied. So
consolidation by a way of a growers society or producer company (A New company
type now supported by Govt. and NABARD for farmers) will help them actively
participate in tender and market the produce in a profitable way.
b) Rural Godowns and
Processing centre
The medicinal plants are available only in particular season but the
demand from the manufacturers is year around. As most collectors do not have
place to clean, process and grade medicinal plants without any contamination
and also to store them safely till the next season and supply them to the
industry as per the request there is a need for establishing rural godowns cum
processing center in identified areas near the forest somewhere medicinal
plants are being collected. National medicinal plant board or NABARD can be
approached for establishing this kind of rural godowns designed to store graded
bale packed herbal material under hygienic condition.
A small testing laboratory could be established in these godowns which
are tested as per the pharmacopias and supply to industry which will add great
value to the collectors or gatherers of medicinal plants. A revolving fund can
be provided to the members of the village forest committee so that they can collect, gather, store and
supply during the needy times.
c)
Need for nursery and seed bank
Many
farmers in Tamil Nadu are looking for alternate crops which are less labour intensive, require less water and chemical
fertilizers and pesticides. But unfortunately the planting material or seeds that they require are not easily available in
places nearer to them. Therefore establishing of nurseries for medicinal plants
which are required in a specific region can be done in the central nurseries of
the or the extension centers and the
research blocks of the forest dept.
Training
Forest
extension centers can provide training in nursery development propagation,
medicinal plant agronomy, post harvest processing and quality standards and
testing of the crude drugs.
To
conclude the Tamil Nadu forest dept with its rich resources and knowledge base
in the medicinal plant sector can definitely play a lead role in enhancing
quality medicinal plant raw material at the appropriate price to the
manufacturing industries and reduce the health burden of the state
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