Assam plans commercial cultivation

Guwahati: The National Medicinal Plant Board has embarked upon an ambitious plan to start cultivation and use of medicinal plants in nearly 100 government schools across Assam in order to counter the antibiotic resistance or anti-microbial resistance which has been identified as major public health concern of 21st century.

Referring the meeting of National Medicinal Plant Board in New Delhi, the newly appointed members of Assam Medicinal Plant Board Jatindra Sarma, an officer of Indian Forest Service told this newspaper that Assam is home to diverse range of medicinal plants which could be a major source of income.

It is signmificant that about 1178 species of medicinal plants are estimated to be in trade of which 242 species have annual consumption levels in excess of 100 metric tons a year. The domestic demand of medicinal plants has been estimated 1,95,000 MT for the year of 2014-2015 and export demand of medicinal plants has been estimated 1,34,500 MT during 2014-2015. Total consumption of herbal raw drug in the country for the year 2014-15 has been estimated at 5,12,000 MT with corresponding trade value of Rs 5,500 crore. The major increase has been recorded in export value which has increased from `345.80 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 3211 crore in 2014-15, registering a nine fold increase in during last decade.

Mr Sarma who has documented more than 1336 medicinal plants besides 60 wild mushroom species of Assam pointed out that there was huge potential to start commercial production of various medicinal plants found in the state.

Pointing out that WHO’s statics shows that about 490,000 people have been infected with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in year 2016, Mr Sarma said that it is estimated that due to multi-drug resistance by 2050 there is possibility of more than 10 million deaths every year, more than the cancer related deaths (8.2million per year) in the same period.

Asserting that most effective an reliable option to manage the elimination of multi-drug-resistant pathogens is going to be medicinal plants, Mr Sarma said that in first phase they are planning to encourage large scale production of Giloy which is called Tinospora Cordifolia.

He said, “It is also found in wild but we have not tested its medicinal value as yet. We are going to send Giloy found in wild for laboratory test soon.”

Mr Sarma who has been involved in documentation of plants for more than 13 years regretted that due to the lack of enough information and knowledge, many plants, herbs, and climbers are treated as weed and thrown out during regeneration and plantation works.