Production of crude drugs : Cultivation of Medicinal plants

Production of crude drugs : Cultivation of Medicinal plants

1. Collection of wild plant for medicinal use has several disadvantages

   • Continuous collection may lead to serious defeciency
   • wild plants are found in sparse distribution over unlimited area
   • The difficulty in collecting these plants as they are mostly growing in deserts or forests or seas where the way is always difficult
   • Ignorance of collectors may lead to
     • Admixture of the desired plant with other plants
     • Collection of undesired organ of the desired plant
     • Collection of the desired plant at improper time
   • Insufficiency of wild plants to fulfill the need of the market
   • The difficult of transport when the natural home is far from any ordinary means of transportation

2. cultivation of Medicinal Plants

   • Advantages
     • Concentration of a large number in a small controlled areas
     • Give a good means of controlling purity of the drug
     • Controlling processes of collection , drying , preparation and storage which are carried out by trained workers
     • Controlling factors affecting drug activity as selection , mutation , hybridization and polyploidy and also improvement of the drug owing to improved conditions of soil , fertilizers , control of insects pests
     • Cultivation is essential in the case of drugs subjected to governmental control as opium
     • Cultivation of the drug near to pharmaceutical firm for the manufacture process , thus preventing deterioration of the vegetable drugs by careless handling and lower the costs of transportation
   • Disadvantages
     • The high cost of production due to high prices and cost of land
     • Cultivation modifies the morphological and anatomical characters of the wild plant so that the identification of the plant become difficult ad many varieties are produced
     • Medicinal plants require a particular environment not readily obtainable under cultivation as cannabis requires tropical climate for production of the narcotic resin
     • Loss of plants due to adverse weather conditions such as rain , attack of fungi , insects and diseases

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