Cultivation of medicinal plants has several advantages including ensuring quality, purity, yield and regular supply. It also allows for modern technologies and industrialization. The main methods of cultivation are seed propagation and asexual propagation. Seed propagation uses seeds to grow seedlings, which are long-lived though variable, while asexual propagation uses vegetative parts for uniform plants that fruit earlier. Factors like altitude, temperature, rainfall, soil type and fertilizers must be considered for proper cultivation. Collection methods vary by plant part and drying can be natural or using equipment like tray or vacuum dryers.

1. Cultivation
Deepak K. Birla
P’cognosy

2. Advantages
• It insure quality and purity of medicinal plant.
• It gives a better yield and therapeutic quality.
• It ensure regular supply of a crude drug.
• Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants also
lead to industrilisation to a greater extent.
• It also permits application of modern
technological aspect such as mutation,
hybridisation and polyploidy.
Disadvantage:
• The cost of cultivated drugs is high as compared
to wild drugs.

3. Methods of cultivation
1) Seed propagation:
in these method the plant are raised from seeds
and such plant are known as seedling.
Advantage:
Seedling are long lived.
Seedling are cheaper and easy to raise.
Disadvatage
Seedling are not uniform in their growth and
yield.
They are require more time to bear.
Cost is high.

4. Ideal characters
 The seed must be good quality.
 They should be capable of high germination rate.
 They must be free from insect,disease and other
seeds.
Precautions:
 seeds should be stored in cool and dry place to
maintain their germination power.
 Long storage of seeds should be avoided.

5. 2. Asexual method
In these method the vegetative part of plant such as
stem or root, is placed that it develops into a new
plant.
Advantage:
• Plant are Uniform in their growth and yield.
• Plants start bearing earlier.
• Seedless variety of fruits can only be propagated by
vegetatively.
Disadvantage:
• They are not long lived as compared to seedling tree.

6. Types of asexual method
a) Vegetative propagation:
Is it done by sowing various part of plant.
• Example
• Bulb - garlic
• Tuber - potato
• Rhizomes- turmeric, zinger
B) Aseptic method: the plant are developed in an
artificial medium under aseptic condition.
Example: cells, callus,

7. Factors affecting cultivation
• Altitude
• Temperature
• Rainfall
• Soil
• Fertilizers

8. altitude
• Plant Altitude (m)
• Tea 1000-1500
• Cinchona 1000-2000
• Camphor 1500-2000
Temperature
Plant temp range (o
F)
Tea 70-90
Coffee 55-70
Cardamom 50-100

9. Rainfall:
All the plant are require either sufficient rainfall or
proper arrangement for irrigation.
Soil :
It support growth of plant
It provided water and essential plant food element
for plant growth.
Types of soil particle size
Fine clay less than 0.002mm
Coarse clay 0.002-0.02mm
Fine sand 0.02-0.2mm
Coarse sand 0.2-2.0 mm

10. Fertilizers
• Primary nutrient: Nitrogen, phosphorous,
potassium.
• Secondary nutrient: Magnesium, calcium,
sulphur.
• Trace element: copper, iron, manganese, boron,
zinc.
• corbon, oxygen,hydrogen, chlorine (from water
and air)

11. collection
• Bark
 Felling: the tree is cut at the base and bark is peeded
out.
 Uprooting: the roots are dug out and the bark is
stripped off from roots and branches.
 Coppicing : the plant are allow to grow for a definite
peroid and then it is cut off at specific distance from
soil.
• Rhizomes: part of plant are to be collected when
their aerial growth is ceased.
• Leaf : collected before maturity
• Flower: Collected just before pollination

12. Drying:
• Natural drying
• Artificial drying
Tray dryer
Vaccum dryer
Spray dryer