Healing Power of Nature
Since the history of time human beings have been looking for good aroma. The sense of wellbeing that aroma gives and some of the varieties of plants through its oil improve the sensitivities and relaxation of its effects from these aromatic plants. These essential oils have been used for fascination for the perfume industry.
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Plants that repels mosquito
Today Indian cosmetics business according to Dr. A. Tripathi Director of Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) “The herbal industry is increasing every year 15 to 10 percent and is worth around 150 billion dollars. India’s biodiversity is rich however we have not been able to utilize it to its potential. Our attention at CIMAP a government initiative is to make it affordable unlike other certain private companies who have tendency to over exploit the benefits of the technologies and kill it.”
North east is a natural rich biodiversity of medicinal and aromatic plants. The people in North East have grown and have passed the knowledge through generations. The goldmine like the rose if cultivated in these areas, the cost of rose oil is 6 lakhs per kilo. Then there is a plant carentheses, its nano quantity has compounds to fight cancer. It cost 10 million dollars a kilo. CIMAP is trying to improve the content yield.
Dr. A. Tripathi, seated in center at the Asian Confluence in Shillong
India has 50,000 plants that exist which have some economic value in terms of medicinal and aromatic value. The current condition of harvesting brings with it a condition that is over exhausted in 5 years. 90 percent of plants are being collected from the Himalayan areas. It is known fact that 165 plants are used by industries out of 150 plants are endangered already. CIMAP efforts is to conserve by cultivating not by collection.
These kinds of plants are a gold mine. In a gold mine, the gold it is not all around, it is in a minisucle quantity it is through enrichment then only we are able to get the gold. So the plants are actually the gold mine and there are present in miniscule quantity. To get gold one has to direct the process. In plants CIMAP has been able to directly enhance its yield in a smaller area. Plants are better example of it potential than a gold mine.
Some of the dignitaries and the public attending the symposium after the MOU sign between CIMAP and the Meghalaya Government
In Meghalaya, it is to develop a model to not only regrow these kinds of plants that are found in abundant to process it for its essential oil but be able to develop some of its products like mosquito repellent, sanitary pads and all. The complete eco-system can be integrated within from the plant to the product can be achieve if there is entrepreneurship, similar to the Korean model. “Meghalaya is a rich bio diversity and is a gold mine.” according to Dr. Tripathi.
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CIMAP, focus on two main areas on medicinal and aromatic plants. It is to promote cultivation and utilization optimization of medicinal and aromatic plants of the country. These activities can harness the potential of the green potential in the Meghalaya and the North East.
The herbal industries require a lot of raw material. This raw material if it has a huge volume the processing cost and transportation cost are high. CIMAP has been able to intervene through biotechnology and molecular biology to determining the complete genome for high yield varieties of these medicinal or the aromatic plants. It helps to reduce the area of production and processing cost.
It starts from the cultivation of the plants to processing it though distillation to get the essential oil. Then isolating different components that can be used in the perfume industry. Depending on the biodiversity, the climate to produce aromatic plants. CIMAP has been involve in identifying in the promising plants. One of the most successful stories has been Menthol.
The oils in menthol, can be found in gutka, pan masala, tea and many more. The Japanese mint was introduced to India, its yield per hectare and the amount of essential oil was low, it was regarded highly uneconomic. CIMAP, develop the high yield varieties from the Japanese mint in terms of foliage, the content and such. Menthol is a long duration crop with the scientific intervention. It is now a 4000 crore mint business.
The current exhaustion of sandalwood by the industries, the patchouli, geranium and vertebra provide an alternative over huge demand for these alternative for base oils for perfume industry. In Meghalaya geranium grows locally. The climate is inducive and provides a good resource to enrich the economy of the state. In a hectare a farmer can earn 1.5 lakhs to 2 lakhs rupees per annum. The yield has been shorten to 6 months and it gives enough oil to provide an alternative to sandalwood.
The failure of medical plants in the field is because aromatic plants have an assured market while medicinal plants not all of them have an assured market. It is due to the industries is dependent on collection. As long as collection is happening it will never support the cultivation aspect. Sooner or later many plants are going to be cultivated.
Medicinal plants, the aromatherapy of plants, like aspirin was originally derived from the plants. Where the chemist have been able to synthesis the plant and able to produce. Large number of medicines today are chemically the synthesis of the plant extracted. However not all plants could be replicated and the chemist do have certain limitations. Therefore the naturally available metabolites of the plants are a great source to medicine which is known for thousands of years. Ayurveda is an example. It has not been able to reach over borders, due to like all modern medicines it needs to go through various form of analysis to get scientific validation of their chemical properties. It requires an extensive research.
“The active ingredient in the ecosystem it requires a certain aspect to understand. It’s like Lord Hanuman, will know a lot of things but he will not be able to identify about the plant. So he will cut the whole mountain. The collectors will identify the herb. In the process they will destroy and not recognize and damage other number of drugs plants in the vicinity. They collect these plants and feed to the industries.” according to Dr. Tripathi.
Pairadime helps to control malaria and is a volatile chemical which repels mosquito. In every house and in every room we are using the mosquito repellents. These vaporizers with pairadime are using a low toxicity as compared to other vaporizers. Like sugar and salt everything has a limit if we go beyond its limit it turns out to be toxic. Meghalaya is an ideal place for cultivation of these plants, it can be a source of botanical herbicide for mosquito and many other insects.
In CIMAP, they like to screen the cultivation of the biodiversity to have the highest level of content and from there with the economist to be able to analyze what cultivation practices will give maximum yield to the plant then demonstrate the economics and benefits of the plant to the farmer; the stability packages of practice for production to the farmer. “To some famers there is demand for 100 tons they will produce instead 500 ton, it will create a side effect the prices will drop. Their needs to be some management matching with the demand the cultivation.” points Dr. Tripathi
“The simplicity of the people has been exploited. A lot of farmers need awareness. It is them who can create the dictate of the price. We have to ensure their yield returns and there are buyers. How to take science in the field. How to take science from the field to the farmers. How to connect farmers with the herbal industries.”
The goldmine is there the gold smith are missing. Every year, medicinal plants either bloom or wither away. The healing properties are there which we need to explore. It is nature that has provided a bounty to make use not over exploitation. It is to explore the cultivation mode and not the collection process. A lot of medicinal herbs are getting extinct due to over exploitation.
The lower hanging fruits at lower altitudes are being exhausted while the higher altitudes fruits are being exploited. The effort is to recover them in their native location. We can play an important role of having a realization the industries do have a need. It’s for farmer through cultivation to impose certain limits to the industries, through quality control. The conservation of bio diversity is to give the recognition of the traditional healers of their knowledge. It is with the co-operation of science it can help to explore the minute molecular structure to understand the gold mine in these plants.
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