Medicinal and aromatic plants

Q. What is the climatic and soil requirement of Aloe vera?
Ans- Aloe vera grows well under arid regions wiht minimum rainfall. The plant prefers red sandy soil with adeqate drainage. Heavy soils with water logging is not suitable for its cultivation. The plant is a boon to arid zone or the drought prone areas. It is definitely a crop highly suitable for growing under rainfed arid tracts in India. The crop could be promoted for commercial cultivation in marginal soils as well.

Q. Why commercial cultivation of Aloe vera in India is done only to a limited extent?
Ans- The reason behind this is the adeqate supply of Aloe from the wild. secondly, there has been marketing constraints posing serious limitations for commercial cultivation in India

Q. What are the constraints associated with medicinal plant market?
Ans- According to a UNIDO study, the following constraints are associated with the use of traditional medicine sector in developing countries including India.

• Poor agricultural practice
• Poor harvesting and post harvest practice
• Lack of research on development of high yielding varieties
• Poor propagation methods
• Inefficient processing techniques leading to low yields and poor quality products
• Poor quality control procedures
• High energy losses during processing
• Lack of current good manufacturing practices
• Difficulties in marketing
• Lack of local market for primary processed products
• Lack of trained personnel and equipment
• Lack of facilities to fabricate equipment locally
• Lack of access to latest technological and market information

Q. How to identify isabgol plant?
Ans-It is 10-15 cm tall short-stemmed annual herb. Leaves are born alternately on the stem. Flowers in terminal spikes; fruit a capsule. Seeds are translucent amd concavo-covex.

Q. How to prepare land for Isabgol cultivation?
Ans- Field must be free of weeds and clods.The number of ploughings, harrowing and hoeing depend upon the soil conditions, previous crop and degree of weed infestation. About 10-15 tonnes of FYM per hectare is mixed into the soil at the time of last ploughing. The field should be divided into suitable plots of convenient size, depending upon the texture of the soil, the slope of the field and quantum of irrigation. For light soil with even contour, plot size of 8.0 m x 3.0 m will be convenient.

Q. What is fertilizer and manure requirement of isabgol?
Ans The medicinal plants have to be grown without chemical fertilizers and use of pesticides. Organic manures like, Farm Yard Manure (FYM), Vermi-Compost, Green Manure etc. may be used as per requirement of the species. To prevent diseases, bio-pesticides could be prepared (either single or mixture) from Neem (kernel, seeds & leaves), Chitrakmool, Dhatura, Cow's urine etc.

Q. How to process lemon grass?
Ans Lemongrass is distilled in copper stills of about 100 kg capacity by steam distillation, or water and steam distillation process. Time required for one distillation is about two hours including the time required for charging and discharging, provided the firewood is well dried and of good quality. For one distillation, about 40 kg of firewood is required. A light yellow, lemon-scented volatile oil is obtained. Providing a perforated disc just above the water level in the copper still will be helpful to produce oil of better quality. This method is known as water and steam method. When crop area is large enough, steam method is found to be more economical. Coal is used as fuel.

The cut grass is chopped into smaller pieces before feeding to the distillation unit. It can be stored up to 3 days under shade without any adverse effect on yield or quality of oil.

Q. What is the climatic and soil requirement of Jangali Haldi?
Ans It is distributed in Southeast Asia. The plant grows wild in the eastern Himalayas and in moist deciduous forests of Kerala and Karnataka. It is grown as a subsistence crop in backyard, kitchen garden and interspaces of other crops in areas with good rainfall. Well-drained rich loamy soils are ideal for the crop.

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