Need for large scale cultivation of herbs and medicinal

Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul today underlined the need for large scale cultivation of herbs and medicinal plants to cater to the demand of industry, pitching for a fresh impetus to research in the field.
He said responsible use of natural resources to ensure their availability for the future was a major global concern and sustainable utilisation of these plants is the most tenable strategy to conserve them.
Addressing a symposium "Herbal Research, Opportunities, Challenges and Beyond" at Jhajra here, Paul hoped that it would be a significant step in this direction.
He said that emphasis should be laid on in-vitro studies of herbs to prove their therapeutic efficacy and thus to standardize thedrugs obtained.

"The resultsobtained should be documented scientifically. The programme for development of the medicinal plant sector needs research, development and extension carried out in a planned manner," he said.
"It is best to have a policy that allows the extraction of medicinal plants from the wild only up to a sustainable extent and the promotion of their large scale cultivationto meet the growing demands of the industry," he said.

The State Medicinal Plants Board and the Herbal Research & Development Institute at Gopeshwar needs to be galvanised to promote the sector.
"Having been a student of chemistry, I have a personal interest in this area and have also visited the laboratory located at Mandal. The unit did not have a Director for quite some time and appeared to be in a state of neglect. I have made my own suggestions for its revival," he said.

Paul said Uttarakhand has immense herbal wealth and its great potential in the area needs to be tapped and utilised so that it becomes a leading herbal state in the country.
The symposium was organised by Uttarakhand State Council for Science and technology.
He also released 20thvolume of the thebi-annual Universities Journal of Phytochemistry and Ayurvedic Heights on the occasion, saying it has made a remarkable contribution to promote and popularise research on Indian herbs and scientific assessment of traditional herbs and medicines of the Indigenous Indian system.