Cultivation, Collection processing and storage of crude drugs

Introduction
Cultivation of medicinal plants requires intensive care and managements. The quality and growth of medicinal plants can be affected by other plants, other living organisms and by human activities. Medicinal plant materials derived from the same species can show significant differences in quality when cultivated at different sites, owing to the influence of soil, climate and other factor.

Crude drugs cultivated or uncultured plants Some cases: pharmacopoeias specify cultivated spp. Such as Fennel, ginger, cinnamon & opium Opium: only official growers may legally produce herbs. Other herbs: senna, tragacanth etc, may be collected from wild or cultivated species

Advantages of cultivation: It ensures quality and purity of medicinal plants. Collection of crude drugs from cultivated plants gives a better yield and therapeutic quality. Cultivation permits application of modern technological aspects such as mutation, polyploidy and hybridization. The cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants also leads to industrialization to a greater extent. Cultivation ensures regular supply of a crude drug.

DISADVANTAGES OF WILD PLANT COLLECTION

Sparse distribution e.g. Sceletium tortuosum Potentially difficult to transport herb to area of processing. Difficult access (e.g. Forests, Mountains etc) Collector ignorance admixture of other plants, collection of undesired plant parts or stage of development or during an incorrect season loss of medicinal activity. The losses occur due to natural conditions like storms, earthquakes, flood, droughts, snowfall, tsunami etc. Cost of crude drugs is more compared to that of drugs collected from wild plants. Land, labour and money are required.

Collecting of medicinal plants

A. Suitable time for collection The amount of a constituent is usually not constant throughout the life of a plant.

The stage at which a plant is collected or harvested is,

therefore, very important for maximizing the yield of the desired constituent. The differences are sometimes not only quantitative but also qualitative.

Methods Of Cultivation
Medicinal plants can be propagated by two usual methods as applicable to non-medicinal plants or crops. These methods are referred as
Sexual method Asexual method.

Each of these methods has certain advantages, and also, disadvantages.

1. Sexual method (Seed Propagation)

In case of sexual method, the plants are raised from seeds and such plants are known as seedlings. The sexual method of propagation has following advantages. Seedlings are long-lived (in case of perennial drugs) and bear more heavily (in case of fruits). Plants are more sturdy. Seedlings are comparatively cheaper and easy to raise.

Advantages:

 In case of plants where other method cannot be utilized, propagation from seeds is only method of choice.

Disadvantages
Generally, seedling-trees are not uniform in their growth and yielding capacity, as compared to grafted trees. They require more time to bear, as compared to grafted plants. The cost of harvesting, spraying of pesticides, etc. is more as compared to grafted trees.

 For propagation purpose, the seeds must be of good quality. The seeds are preconditioned with the help of scarcification to make them permeable to water and gases. Before germination, sometimes a chemical treatment is given with stimulants like gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene, thiourea, potassium nitrate or sodium hypochlorite.

 To enhance germination, many times, special treatments to seeds are given, such as soaking the seeds in water for a day. E.g. castor-seeds and other slow-germinating seeds.

Asexual method
In case of asexual method or vegetative propagation, the vegetative part of a plant, such as stem or root, is placed in such an environment that it develops in to a new plant. Advantages: A plant starts bearing earlier as compared to seedling trees. There is no variation between the plant grown and plant from which it is grown.

Inferior or unsuitable varieties can be overlooked. Seedless varieties of fruits can only be propagated vegetatively e.g. grapes and lemon. Budding or grafting encourages disease-resistant varieties of plants. Disadvantages: In comparison to seedling trees, these are not vigorous in growth and are not long lived. No new varieties can be evolved by this method.

Asexual method
(a) Vegetative propagation: Bulbs: squill, garlic Corms: colchicum, saffron Tubers: jalap, aconite, potato Rhizome: ginger, turmeric Runner: peppermint Suckers: mint, pineapple, banana Stolons: liquiroce

(b) Aseptic methods of micro propagation

In micropropogation, the plants are developed in artificial media under aseptic conditions. They provided with nutritional, hormonal requirement. A fine piece of plant like
Single cell Callus Seeds Embryo Root tip Shoot tip Pollen grain

Factors affecting cultivation and collection.

Altitude, temperature and humidity Rain fall or irrigation Soil and soil fertility Fertilizers Day-length and radiation characteristics Time of harvest Pests and pest control

Altitude
Altitude is a very important factor in cultivation of medicinal plants. The coconut plant needs a maritime climate and the sugar cane is a lowland plant. Conversely, tea, cocoa, coffee, medicinal rhubarb, tragacanth and cinchona require elevation. In the case of Cinchona succirubra the plants grow well at low levels but produce practically no alkaloids.

 The bitter constituents of Gentiana lutea increases with altitude, whereas the alkaloids of Aconitum napellus and Lobelia inflate and the oil content of thyme and peppermint decrease. Other oil-producing plants may reach a maximum at certain altitude.

Plant Tea Cinchona Camphor Cinnamon Coffee Clove Saffron Cardamom

Altitude (meters) 1000-1500 1000-2000 1500-2000 250-1000 1000-2000 Up to 900 Up to 1250 600-1600

Temperature
Temperature is a major factor controlling the development and metabolism of plants. Many tropical and subtropical plants will grow in temperature region during summer months, but lack frost resistance to withstand winter. The formation of volatile oils appears to be enhanced at higher temperature, although very hot days may lead to an excess physical loss of oil.

 The mean optimum temperature for nicotine production in Nicotina rustica is 20C. Several authors have indicated that fixed oils produced at low temperatures contain fatty acids with a higher content of double bonds than those formed at higher temperature.

 Excessive temperature, as well as, frost also affects quality of medicinal plants adversely. Camphor and coffee cannot withstand frost, whereas saffron needs only cold climate and pyrethrum requires dry weather for cultivation.

Plant Cinchona Coffee Tea Cardamom

Optimum Temperature (F) 60-75 55-70 70-90 50-100

Rainfall or irrigation
Except the xerophytic plants like aloe, acacia and few others, most of the plants need either proper arrangements for irrigation or sufficient rainfall for their favorable development. The important effect of rain fall must be considered in relation to the annual rainfall, its distribution throughout the year, its effect on humidity and its effect coupled with the water-holding properties of the soil.

 Continuous rain can lead to a loss of watersoluble substances from leaves and roots by leaching, this is known to apply to some plants producing alkaloids, glycosides and even volatile oils.

 With Cassia angustifolia (Tinnevelly senna) it has been shown that short-term drought increases the concentration of sennosides A+B but in the longer term causes loss of leaf biomass

Soils and soil fertility

Soil is the most important natural resource as it supports growth of all plants. Soil provides mechanical anchorage, as well as, water and essential plant food elements for growth. Plant growth depends upon physical arrangement and nature of soil particles, organic matter content of soil and its living organisms.

 The commonly known soil is the shallow upper layer and is the friable material in which plant find foot-hold and nourishment. Clay is one of the highly weathered portions of the soil, consisting of finest particles Variations in particle size result in different soils ranging from clay via sand, to gravel. Particle size is one factor influencing waterholding capacity.

 The pH of soil decides favorable growth of plants and presence of micro-organisms. Acidic soils are not suitable for leguminous plants due to poor development of nodular bacteria. Therefore ground nut, sunflower seeds, cotton, and rice grow better in alkaline soil.

 Acidic pH is disadvantageous as it solubilizes more iron. Some plants like tobacco, cinchona, tea, and potato grow well only in acidic soil. In alkaline soil phosphorus is converted to insoluble form of calcium phosphate and so it cannot be made available to plant.

 Soil consist of mineral, air, water and organic matter. Mineral matter may be coarse gravel, coarse sand or in the form of finest particle of clay and slit. Air and water give rise to pores, while putrified and decayed plant and animal parts constitute the organic matter.

Particle size (diameter) Less than 0.002mm 0.002-0.02mm 0.02-0.2mm 0.2-2.00mm

Types of soil Fine soil Coarse clay or slit Fine sand Coarse sand

Types of soil Clay Loamy Slit loam Sandy loam

Percentage covered >50% of clay 30-50% of clay 20-30% of clay 10-20% of clay

Sandy soil
Calcarious soil

>70% of sand
>20% of lime

Type of soil Poor soil Intermediate soil Rich soil

Organic matter Less than 0.5% 0.5 to 1.5% More than 1.5 to 5 %

 Soil for plant growth should have half of the pore space filled with water and rest with air. Good aeration is essential for root development.

Soil fertility
The capacity of soil to supply plant nutrients in quantities and proportions required and to provide a suitable medium for plant growth is known as soil fertility. If cropping is done without fortification of soil with plant nutrients, soil fertility gets lost. It is also diminished through leaching and erosion. Soil fertility can be maintained by addition of animal manures, nitrogen-fixing bacteria or by application of chemical fertilizers

Fertilizers
The use of fertilizers is often indispensable in order to obtain large yields of medicinal plants. Plants require at least 16 elements for normal growth and for completion of their life cycle. Some of them are known as primary nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

 Magnesium, calcium and sulphur are required in small quantities and hence they are known as secondary nutrients. Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and chlorine are non mineral elements provided to plants by water and air.

 Every elements has to perform some specific functions in growth and development of plants. Its deficiency is also characterized by certain symptoms. Various parts of plants are used in pharmaceutical industry for their active constituents, for example, leaves, rhizomes, roots etc.

 Some of the nutrients are responsible for growth of particular parts of the plants body. Generally nitrogen fertilizers increase the size of the plants and the amounts of alkaloids produced.

 Chemical fertilizer: Primary fertilizer: 16 nutrient (N. P.K.) Secondary fertilizer:- Mg, Ca, S. Micronutrient (trace element):-Cu, Mn, Fe, Bo, Mo, Zn,

Day-length and radiation characteristics

Plants vary much in both the amount and intensity of the light which they require. Light is a factor which helps to determine the amount of glycosides or alkaloids produced. With belladonna, stramonium and cinchona ledgeriana full sunshine gives a higher content of alkaloids than does shade.

 It has been shown that under long-day conditions peppermint leaves contain menthone, menthol and traces of menthofuran; plants grown under short-day conditions contain menthofuran as a major component of the volatile oil.

 Furthermore a long photoperiod for young leaves activates the reduction pathway with conversion of menthone to menthol. The type of radiation which plants receive is also important. Flavonoids and anthocyanins are known to be influenced by UV-B radiation.

Time of Harvest
The concentration of the biologically active constituents varies with the stage of plant growth and development. Medicinal plants should be harvested during the optimal season or time period to ensure the production of medicinal plant materials and finished herbal products of the best possible quality.

 Plant should be harvested at that time when it contain maximum quantity and quality of biologically active constituents rather than the total vegetative yield of the targeted medicinal plant parts.

 If harvesting occurs in wet conditions, the harvested material should be transported immediately to an indoor drying facility so as to prevent any possible deleterious effects due to increase moisture levels, which promote microbial fermentation and mould.

Pests and pest control

Medicinal crop is harvested and consumed by man, considerable quantity of crude drug is wasted or destroyed by pest. Pest is an undesired animal or plant species and pesticides are chemicals derived from synthetic and natural sources effective in small concentrations against pest.

Types of pests: The different type of pests infesting medicinal plants are fungi, viruses, weeds, insects and non-insect pests including rodents. (1) Fungi and Viruses: Different types of fungi are known to occur on medicinal plants. Ascochyta atropae causes the formation of greyishwhite irregular spots which further causes necrosis of leaves. The disease is called leaf necrosis.

(2) Insects: Various insect pests which attack medicinal plants that can be enumerated here are Agrotis species; Heliothis armigera, and odontotermes obesus. Belladona losses the leaves due to Gonocephalum species and Agrotis flammatra. (3) Weeds: A weed is undesired plants. Weeds are considered as dreadful pests because losses due to them are estimated to be more than those occurring due to other pests and diseases combined together.

(4) Non-insect pests:

1.Vertebrates like rats, monkeys, birds, rabbits, squirrels, deer, pigs, etc. 2.Invertebrates like nematodes, crabs, snails, mites.

METHODS OF PEST CONTROL

(1) MECHNICAL METHOD: The simple techniques used are hand-picking, pruning, burning and trapping of pests. (2) AGRICULTURAL METHOD: It covers advanced plant breeding techniques which produce pest resistant species. Another aspects in agricultural control is ploughing, crop rotation.

(3) BIOLOGICAL CONTROL: This method is practiced by combating the pests, mostly the insects, with other living organisms. (4) CHEMICAL CONTROL: The control of pests is brought about with the use of chemical pesticides, which include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, acaricides (miticides). The insecticides are applied to vegetative parts for protective activity in the forms of spray, aerosol, solution, suspensions and fine dust.

Questions asked in GTU Exams

Write the factors influencing cultivation of medicinal plants. (June10) Enlist factor influencing cultivation & collection of medicinal plants. (Dec.11) What is cultivation? Discuss advantages of it. (June11) Comment on types of soil. Which common fertilizers are used to maintain soil fertility?(June11)

Questions asked in GTU Exams

Various factors affecting Cultivation and collection of medicinal Plants. (Dec.10) Write the factors influencing cultivation of medicinal plants. (June10) What are the factors affecting the cultivation, collection and processing of crude drugs? (June09) Write a note on types of soil. (Sept.09) Discuss the advantages of cultivated medicinal plants over their intact wild plants. (Sept.09)