This document discusses medicinal plants and their prospects in Bihar, India. It provides background on the ancient use of plants for medicine dating back 60,000 years. It outlines some early civilizations and medical systems that incorporated plants, including Ayurveda. The document then focuses on Bihar's potential for growing medicinal plants due to its natural factors. It provides examples of economically important plants grown in Bihar like lemon grass, ashwagandha, and garlic. It also describes the uses of other plants like tulsi, ginger, brahmi, arjuna, and five-leaved chaste tree. Former President Abdul Kalam helped promote medicinal plant cultivation in Bihar. Finally, it

2. MEDICINAL PLANTS AND ITS
PROSPECTS IN BIHAR
Chiranjeev Kumar
M. Sc., Environment Management,
Forest Research Institute (DU), Dehradun
&
Rina Kumar
Madadgar Sewa, Digha Ghat, Patna – 11, Bihar

3. Medicinal Plants
• The idea of using plants for healing goes back
to very ancient prehistoric times in all
cultures.
–Neanderthal burial with useful medical plants
from 60,000 years ago. Shanidar Cave in Iraq.
Buried with 8 plant species, 7 of which have
medicinal uses.
• Basic problem with archeological evidence:
plant material decays easily, especially if it is
edible.

4. Medicine in Early Civilizations
• Rig-veda in India
• Hippocrates (400 BC) : ancient Greek
healer. Medical doctors take the
Hippocratic Oath. Western medicine
was founded on his works.
• Dioscorides (100 AD) was a Roman who
compiled De Materia Medica, which
discusses 600 plants of medicinal value.

5. Systems of Medicine
• Our present system, scientific medicine, is only
200 years old or so. There have been many other
concepts in medicine, and there continue to be
alternative systems of medicine.
• Traditional Ayurveda (traditional Indian
medicine) are also alternative theories of
medicine that remain popular.
• Francis Bacon, an early scientific philosopher,
said. “Ayurveda is the foundation of all. We are
not to imagine or suppose, but to discover, what
nature does or may be made to do”.

6. • A study in 2001 counted 122 compounds
used in medicine that were derived from
traditional herbal medicine. Of these,
80% were used for the purpose the
herbalists said they were good for.
Traditional herbal medicine is a very
useful starting point for drug discovery.
–It is thought that about 10,000
different plants have been used in
herbal medicine at some point in
human history.

7. New Research
According to National Institute of
Industrial Research (NIIR).
Nearly, 500 plants were screened
for antitubercular activity, among
which 40 plants have been
formulated in the systems of
Ayurveda and Siddha.

8. New anti-malarials: The increasing
number of multidrug-resistant
Plasmodium strains. Medicinal
plant research has become more
important, particularly after the
development of anti-malarial drug
artemisnin from Artemisia annua.

9. HIV/AIDS treatment: Medicinal plants such as tulsi,
ashwgandha, pipli, etc which have so far been used
as home remedies for cough and cold, may hold the
key to the treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Department of Virology in Haffkine Institute for
Training, Research and Testing in Parel, conducted
in-vitro tests (tests done outside living systems) on
the herbal extracts of the three plants against
Reverse Transcriptase, an enzyme that is found in
the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and
causes it to multiply. The tests showed that these
herbs have the potential to act effectively against
the enzyme.

10. Indian herbal market is rising sharply
The Indian herbal market is rising sharply and is
expected to hit Rs 14,500-crore mark with
exports reaching Rs 9,000 crore by the year 2012.
The herbal market has an annual compounded
growth rate of 20 and 25 per cent, respectively.
Worldwide, the ayurvedic industry is put at $3
billion and is slowly gaining acceptance as an
alternative system of medicine and health care,
Naram said. The World Health Organisation
(WHO) has projected that the global herbal
market will grow to $5 trillion by 2050.

11. Medicinal plants based industry in the
country has an annual turn over of about
Rs.42,000/- million per year and it is
estimated to grow at the rate of about 20
per cent per year. There are hundreds of
manufacturers and exporters in the
country who are benefiting and large
number of people is getting direct and
indirect employment in these activities.

12. As per estimates India has about
15,000 species of plants with
medicinal properties. Presently about
8,000 of these are in use as
follows: Ayurveda -1,769 species,
Siddha – 1,121 species , Unani - 751
species, Folk – 4,671 species
As per the information received from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, GoI

13. Bihar a state having capability with different
natural factors like flood (17% of Total
Geographical Area), Earthquake zone of IV & V,
etc, to grow medicinal plants.

14. Due to
expectation &
high growth of
Bihar, former
President of
India Dr. A P J
Abdul Kalam
planted
medicinal plant
in 100s of acre
land at Bihta,
Patna.

15. Successive visit of Dr. Kalam

17. Lemon grass

18. Economic Importance
Lemon grass oil is distilled from leaves of Lemon
grass. The oil has strong lemon-like odour, due to
high percentage (over 75%) of citral in the oil,
which is used as a basic raw material for
synthesis of ß-ionones used for synthesis of a
number of useful aromatic compounds and
Vitamin - A. Lemon grass oil is thus used as a
main substitute for ‘Cod liver oil’. Citral itself is
used in perfumery for various grades of soaps,
detergents, cosmetics, insect repellents, room
freshners, ayurvedic preparations and flavour

19. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)
Rs.
500.00
per kg dry
root

20. Sarpgandha
(Rauwolfia
serpentiana)
Rs. 300.00 per
kg dry root

21. GARLIC
• Scientific name: Allium sativum
• Parts utilized: bulbs
• Uses:
– Folkloric: Treats arthritis, rheumatism, toothache,
headache, insect bites, throat problems, nasal
congestion, gas pains
– Current studies: lowers blood cholesterol,
hypertension, antiinfection

22. Aloe vera with high cosmetic value

23. Tulsi for Cough & Cold and also for
Astha cure

24. GINGER
• Scientifc name: Zingiber officinale
• Parts utilized: edible roots
• Uses:
– used as antiseptic; to treat throat problems,
rheumatism, headaches, and also used as diuretic

25. Brahmi for mental brilliancy
-It improves intelligence level and mind alertness.
- It helps in maintaining mental calmness and has an appetite for stress.
- It improving mental performance and increasing learning capacity.
- It is helpful in increasing mental concentration level.

26. Arjuna (Terminalia arjuna)
Arjun tree (Terminalia Arjuna) is k/a kahua, Arjan & other
name. It is a large size deciduous tree, height may reach
up to 85- feet. This tree is always evergreen. The tree
bark contains anti-oxidant properties, it is also used to
lower down cholesterol levels. Strengthening of heart
muscles and proper functionality of the heart is another
advantage of this tree.

27. • Scientific name: Vitex negundo
• Parts utilized: leaves, barks, roots, seeds
• Uses:
– treats rheumatism, sprain, contusions, insects bites,
skin diseases, dysentery, body pains
FIVE-
LEAVED
CHASTE
TREE

28. And many other plant that
has been select and
propagate ……… & increase
Economy & also GDP……

29. Besides the medicinal value of plant, it can
remove waste from wastewater, Typha &
Canna are common plant using under
Phytorid technique using NEERI, Nagpur
SIEMENS PHYTORID MUMBAI

30. Phytorid Technology can be used
to improve the quality of point
and non-point sources of water
pollution, including stormwater
runoff, domestic wastewater,
agricultural wastewater and
coalmine drainage.

31. Various plant Species

32. Now it’sNow it’s
youryour
turn…turn…

33. Thank you