Agrotechniques for cultivation of some HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINAL PLANTS

a treasure of medicinal plants. It is a land of extreme diversity with snow covered Himalayas and arid zones together with evergreen tropical forest, which is best suited for a natural vegetation of all types of plants. WHO (World Health Organisation) has listed over 21,000 plant species used around the world for medicinal purposes. It has been estimated that India has 47,000 species of plants. Out of these, medicinal plants comprise 8,000 species. In recent years Homoeopathic Systemof Medicine and herbal drugs has gained much popularity and preference over heavily flourishing synthetic drugs and antibiotics, since the former are comparatively harmless and can provide long standing or total cure of various diseases. The availability of genuine raw material is the main concern in adopting the latest trend of natural products. Due to the ever increasing utilization of land for food crops and urbanization, the natural sources i. e. forests are declining. Though India is on the map of herbs exporters, it has to import several of the Homoeopathic herbals with few crores of rupees annually. Homoeopathic system of medicine is mainly dependent on about 1200 plants as source of medicine, out of these 40% are reported growing in India, while about 60% are of foreign origin. The varied climatic and edaphic richness of India permits plant growers to cultivate different types of plants in different regions, including indigenous and exotic species of plants. Some exotic species which are used both in Ayurvedic ,and Homoeopathic systems of medicines, though naturalized in various parts ofIndia and found growing in gardens and as wild are in demand in Indian and foreign market hence their commercial cultivation needs to be encouraged. These species include: Adonis vernalis Linn., Arnica montana Linn.,Berberis sp., Cactus graniflorus, Cineraria maritima Linn., Hypericum perforatum Linn., Echinacea angustifolia, E. purpurea (Linn.) Moench, Tanacetum parthenium (Linn.) Schultz-Bip., Silybum marianum Gaertn., Podophyllum peltatum Linn., Pimpinella anisum Linn., Valeriana officinalis Linn., Ginkgo biloba Linn., Digitalis purpurea Linn., Hydrastis canadensis Linn., Lycopus virginica, Nepeta cataria Linn., Myosotis sp., Ruta graveolens linn., Tanacetum spp., Ginseng, etc. Though some Government and non-Government organizations have started work on cultivation of medicinal plants, cultivation and introduction of medicinal plants used chiefly in Homoeopathy has not been taken up. Therefore, to preserve the germplasm of such plants, Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia Laboratory, Department. of ISM&H, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ghaziabad has taken up cultivationof some plants on experimental basis.