Plant perfect

Kohima, July 26: The Nagaland government is setting up seven herbal gardens this year in an effort to promote the medicinal plants of the state.

The gardens will be set up at Rangapahar in Dimapur, Jalukie at Peren, Khezhakeno in Phek, Doyang in Wokha, besides one each in Mon, Mokokchung and Kohima.

The objectives of developing the gardens is to conserve medicinal plants, develop a gene pool of medicinal plants for conservation and propagation, popularisation of use of local medicinal and aromatic plants, and establishing a sustainable medicinal plant resource base, among others.

For sustainable management of these herbal gardens, the government plans to manage and create a herbal nursery, construction of vermicompost unit, interpretation centre and setting up of primary processing units like portable distillery units for value addition.

Some of the common medicinal plants found in Nagaland are paris polyphylla, valeriana wallichii, hypericum perforatum, taxus baccata, cephalotaxus griffithii, aconitum napellus, curcuma caesia, aplinia galangal, homalomena aromatica, cephalotaxus griffithii, emilica officinalis, among others.

The two-year distance learning course in medicinal plants, conducted by the Global Open University, Nagaland, has been designed for meeting the growing needs of experts in the fields of medicinal plants, herbal plantation, medicinal plants resource management, quality control and standardisation of herbal drugs, extraction and marketing of medicinal plants.

“The move (to set up herbal gardens) is a part of the government’s plan to tap the wide range of herbal plant species in the state. The government is trying to promote herbal plantation in the state,” T. Lotha, the chief conservator of forests, said.

Lotha said the government has tied up with a Bangalore-based NGO to identify and categorise medicinal plant species.

“The government has also tied up with School of Agriculture, Medzhiphema, near Dimapur, to identify plants, and so far, 600 species have been identified. It is also contemplating approaching local herbalists to promote herbal medicine in the state,” he said.

Lotha, however, said Nagaland does not have agro-technology for medicinal plants, nursery protocol or plantation techniques as a result of which it is still dependent on other states for such technology.