States of the North East in the country are best suited for medicinal plant supply chain with their topography, soil and climatic conditions, said Dr DB Anantha Narayana, CSO, Ayurvidye Trust, and former chairman, Phyto-pharmaceuticals Committee, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission.
However, the major hurdles are lack of market contacts, know-how, paucity of finance and poor infrastructure, he added.
There is need for local champions to invest in this area, its state governments should provide support and a CSIR lab can be set up here to provide scientific inputs. The region needs to be developed as a biomass supply chain hub. Incentives should be offered, said Dr. Narayana at the North East Pharmaceutical Convention at Assam recently.
Delving on the ‘Act East Policy and Prospects of Pharmaceutical Development in the North East India, Dr. Narayana went on to highlight the opportunities for medicinal plant industry in the region.
“Those engaged in medicinal plant business need to begin supplying initially to nearby mainland areas of Kolkata and New Delhi. Once this takes off the state governments of the North East can set up high quality biomass export zones, primary-secondary herb processing centers and manufacturing companies with minimum technologies can be set up. This will promote the branding the North East region for its medicinal plant wealth and the pharmacists can play a major role in this,” he noted.
The medicinal plant sector will provide employment opportunities which spurs economic growth. From collection of raw herbs across forest zones with required permissions and from the wild areas must be encouraged along with sustainable good collection practices. This will lead to job avenues for the farming community for raw herb segregation and drying. For the educated workforce, minimal processing of raw herbs can add value for developing ready to use products. Authentication and labeling, checking for quality and adulterants can enable access to end-user industry or authorized dealers.
Skill development centres can be formed for collection, segregation and related work. Besides equipment hiring units for different types of grinders, sifters, sealing machines will create need for more workforce. Agricultural practices for many medicinal plants are now available at the NMPB / CIMAP / NBRI / Horticulture- Agriculture Universities. Planting materials can be sourced from both governmental and private agencies, he said.
A visible trend is that herbal extract manufacturers undertaking backward integration. The sector is now moving to collective farming instead of single farmer approach leading to appreciable acreage coverage to reduce cost of cultivation with adoption of scientific harvesting methods.
There are considerable opportunities for cultivation for oil bearing plants like for instance peppermint oil, rosemary oil, rose oil, spearmint oil, lemon grass oil, clove oil etc. CIMAP and other agencies have developed small portable distillation plants. There is a growing market for pure distilled oils, oleoresin yielding plants like Capsaicin actives from chilies and Hexane extracts. Although the investment is intensive, there is the knowhow in other parts of the country which the North East states needs to maximize, stated Dr Narayana.