AGROTECHNIQUES OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS SUITED FOR HOMESTEADS OF KERALA Gracy Mathew, Baby P. Skaria, J. Thomas, Samuel Mathew and Joy P.P. Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Research Station, Odakkali, Asamannoor P.O., Ernakulam District, Kerala, India, PIN-683 549

INTRODUCTION The Western Ghats, one of the two hot spots of biodiversity in the country, harbour around 500 medicinal plant species of which around 400 species are used in Ayurveda; the rest contribute to the tribal and folklore medicines. Among these about 150 species are collected for manufacturing of medicines, dyes, cosmetics etc on a commercial basis. Less than 20 species of plants are under commercial cultivation. More than 90% of the crude drug is collected from the wild and over 70% of the plant collections involve destructive harvesting because of the use of parts like roots, bark, wood, stem and the whole plant in case of herbs. This poses a definite threat to the genetic stocks and to the diversity of medicinal plants if biodiversity is not sustainably used. The demand of major crude drugs is growing substantially in Kerala.. Recently a reawakening in the interest on herbal medicines has necessitated a scientific knowledge on medicinal plants. The forests have been the source of many of the medicinal plants, but the destruction and degradation of their natural habitats has resulted in the extinction of many species. The poor availability of raw drugs has also resulted in adulteration. To check the adulteration in raw drugs, the highly used medicinal plants have to be domesticated and cultivated. In the process of domestication, the most important step is the development of agrotechnology. Holostemma ada-kodien locally known as Adapathiyan belonging to the family Asclepiadaceae is a plant which is now considered as threatened. The plant is used in eye diseases, haemetemesis, cough, tuberculosis etc. Alpinia galanga is a perennial aromatic rhizomatous herb. Because of the presence of essential oil, the rhizomes are used in bronchial troubles and as a carminative. Kaempferia rotunda is an aromatic herb with tuberous root-stalk, the tubers of which are widely used as local application for tumours, swellings and wounds. They are also given in gastric complaints. Curculigo orchioides (Nilappana) is a small geophilous herb, the tuberous root stock of which is used as a rejuvenating and aphrodisiac drug (Kolammal, 1963). Very little work has been done on the agrotechnology of these crops. MATERIALS AND METHODS The studies on standardization of agrotechniques in Holostemma ada-kodien (Adapathiyan), Alpinia galanga (Chittaratha), Kaemferia rotunda (Chengazhineer kizhangu) and Curculigo orchioides (Nilappana) were taken up during 1995-2002 period at Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Research Station, Odakkali. Various field experiments were laid out to investigate the growth pattern, manurial requirements, optimum harvesting time and management practices in theses crops. The data were analysed statistically as per the methods suggested by Panse and Sukhatme (1978 ). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Holostemma ada-kodien a.Time of harvest Field trials were laid out to optimise the harvesting time and the data are presented in Table1. The four six monthly harvests undertaken indicated that the dry weight is increasing

up to 12 months contrast to the fresh weight. At six-month stage the tubers are succulent and there is more water content in tubers. The18th month harvest showed a drastic reduction in fresh and dry weight. This drastic reduction in tuber weight was due to the fact that after summer while the tubers remained in the soil, fresh shoots are produced and the plant started its active vegetative phase. May be that the stored food in the tubers were utilised for regrowth. Table 1. Yield of tubers at different stage of harvest Stage of harvest(months) Fresh weight of tubers (gm /plant) 6th month 220 th 12 month 179 th 18 month 103 24 th month 46

Dry weight of tubers (gm/plant) 100 126 26 11

b. Manurial requirements The objective was to find out the optimum level of fertiliser application for maximum tuber production in Holostemma. The experimental details as well as fresh and dry weight of tubers are given in Table 2. Table 2. Yield of tubers at harvest. Treatment Control NPK -100:50:50 FYM -30 kg/ plant Vermi- compost- 10 kg/plant Biofertiliser-20 gm/plant +K NPK+FYM full dose NPK+FYM half dose Mean

Fresh weight (gm/plant) 14.0 74.0 150.0 54.0 21.0 127.0 85.0 75.0

Dry weight (gm/plant) 2.8 12.4 47.8 13.0 3.3 33.3 25.8 34.6

The maximum yield was obtained in farm yard manure plots. The biofertiliser treatment did not show any benefit . Though yield increased with NPK application over control, the yield was only 50% of that of farm yard manure treatment. Application of FYM along with NPK increased the yield substantially over NPK alone.

Alpinia galanga a. Time of harvest Experiment to assess the time of harvest (Table 3) showed that rhizome and rhizome oil yields were maximum at 42 months, followed by 36 months. Table 3. Rhizome yield parameters of Alpinia galanga as influenced by time of harvest Time of Fresh yield Dry yield Oil yield harvest (kg/ha) (kg/ha) (l/ha) (months) 6 2837 567 4.40 12 9553 1433 14.78

18 24 30 36 42 48 CD 0.05

14377 18242 22950 44312 45392 35582 6875.1

2732 5290 7574 12407 9986 7116 1820.9

44.46 43.41 65.21 104.79 127.39 71.16 26.347

b. Spacing and manurial requirements The results of the experiment (Table 4) showed that the optimum spacing for obtaining maximum rhizome and oil yields in Alpinia is 40x30 cm. Application of FYM at 20 t/ha/year or NPK at 100:50:50 kg/ha/year produces significantly higher rhizome yields. Application of biofertilizer at 10 kg/ha or cowpea green manuring in situ resulted in significantly superior rhizome yields over the control. Table 4. Effect of spacing and manurial treatments on the yield parameters of Alpinia galanga Treatment Fresh Dry rhizome Oil rhizome yield (t/ha) yield yield (t/ha) (l/ha) Spacing (cm) 30 x 20 47.29 13.23 91.29 40 x 30 46.42 12.99 93.53 60 x 40 36.81 10.31 77.33 60 x 60 33.85 9.48 66.36 CD (.05) 2.40 0.67 4.69 Manuring Control FYM-20 t/ha/year NPK (100:50:50 kg/ha/year In situ cowpea green manuring Biofertiliser 10 kg/ha CD (.05)

36.63 45.14 44.86 38.89 39.93 2.69

10.24 12.64 12.57 10.90 11.18 0.75

75.78 94.80 86.73 76.30 74.91 5.25

Kaempferia rotunda a. Effect of spacing The crop was planted at different spacing to find out their effect on rhizome yield. The maximum yield was obtained at 30x 20 cm spacing (Table 5).

Table 5. Effect of different spacing on the yield of Kaempferia rotunda Spacing (cm) 30 x 20

Fresh rhizome yield (kg/ha) 18160

Dry rhizome yield (kg/ha) 5978

30 x30 40 x 30 60 x 40 CD(0.05)

17361 14966 7847 1875

5715 4927 2583 617

b. Effect of organic manures and biofertilizers The objective of the experiment was to assess the requirement of organic manures and biofertilizers for realising maximum yield in Kaempferia rotunda. The data are given in Table 6. Table 6. Effect of different manurial treatments on the growth and yield of Kaempferia rotunda. Sl.No.

Treatment

Fresh rhizome yield (kg/ha)

Dry rhizome yield (kg/ha)

1. 2 3

Control FYM, 15t/ha. FYM, 30t/ha.

3507 3819 2986

1188 1294 1012

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

FTM, 45t/ha. Compost, 30t/ha, Mulch 20t/ha. Mulch 20t+10t/ha Cowpea green manure Vermicompost 15t/ha Vermicompost 15t/ha + mulch Azospirillum 10kg/ha VAM 10 kg/ha Phosphobacter 10kg/ha. NPK, 100:50:50 kg/ha. C.D(0.05)

5729 7465 6875 12951 4826 10104 3646 3785 3924 7049 5556 1931

1941 2529 2329 4388 1635 3423 1235 1282 1329 2388 1882 654

Mulching had the maximum pronounced effect on the yield of Kaempferia rotunda which was followed by the application of compost, FYM and vermicompost. The maximum rhizome yield was produced in the plot mulched two times; basally and after the first top dressing.

Curculigo orchioides a. Optimum spacing and planting density The experiment was aimed to find out the optimum spacing for maximum yield in Curculigo orchioides. The treatments involved 4 spacings viz. 10 x 10cm, 20 x 10cm, 20 x 20cm, 30 x20cm. The observations on plant height and rhizome yield are given in Table 7. Spacing had no significant effect on the growth of Curculigo orchioides. The yield was maximum at the narrowest spacing of 10 x 10 cm due to higher number of plants per unit area. Table 7. Observations on rhizome yield and nutrient content of curculigo orchioides at different spacing. Spacing Plant height (cm) Fresh rhizome Dry Rhizome (cm) yield(kg/ha) yield(kg/ha) 10 x 10 18.6 1896.3 796.6 20 x 10 19.9 1137.7 499.5 20 x 20 20.1 648.6 259.9 30 x 20 18.5 353.0 146.4 CD(0.05) NS 110.2 28.5 b. Optimum time of harvest in Curculigo orchioides The objective of the trial was to find out the best time of harvest for maximum yield in Curculigo orchioides. The growth and yield parameters such as plant height and rhizome yield increased till seven months and decreased subsequently indicating that harvesting the crop seven months after planting is ideal (Table 8). Table 8. Effect of time of harvest on growth and rhizome yield Month Plant height (cm) Dry Rhizome yield(g/plant) 1 9.63 0.08 2 10.63 0.14 3 12.00 0.16 4 14.58 0.20 5 16.63 0.35 6 20.38 0.74 7 21.93 1.77 8 16.78 1.14 9 13.73 0.80 10 12.43 0.67 11 15.20 0.77 12 17.70 0.89 CD(0.05) 2.34 0.15 c. Effect of shade and spacing on the yield and quality of Curculigo orchioides The effect of shade and spacing on the yield and quality of Curculigo orchioides was studied in a replicated experiment. Shading enhanced the growth and yield of Curculigo orchioides. Plant height was maximum at 75% shading. Rhizome yield was highest (1482.8 kg/ha fresh and 643.3 kg/ha dry) at 25% shading (Table 9).

Table 9. Effect of shade on Curculigo orchioides MAP Shade (%) 0 25 50 75 CD(0.05)

Plant height (cm) Fresh Rhizome yield Dry Rhizome yield (kg (kg ha-1)

15.67 18.20 20.14 23.08 3.924

420.33 1482.81 965.85 1166.63 134.973

ha-1)

129.19 643.33 419.93 509.93 34.169

REFERENCES Kolammal, M. 1979. Pharmacognosy of Ayurvedic Drugs Pharm Unite, Ayurvedic College, Trivandrum-10: 15-24 Panse, V.G. and Sukhatme, P.V. 1978. Statistical methods for Agricultural workers. Third edition. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, p. 347

AGROTECHNIQUES OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS SUITED FOR HOMESTEADS OF KERALA Gracy Mathew, Baby P. Skaria, J. Thomas, Samuel Mathew and Joy P.P. Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Research Station, Odakkali, Asamannoor P.O., Ernakulam District, Kerala, India, PIN-683 549

Abstract Herbal medicines were in use from ancient past; however it suffered a severe set back with the introduction of modern medicine. Recently a reawakening in the interest on herbal medicines has necessitated a scientific knowledge on medicinal plants. The forests have been the source of many of the medicinal plants, but the destruction and degradation of their natural habitats has resulted in the extinction of many species. The poor availability of raw drugs has also resulted in adulteration.

To check the adulteration in raw drugs, the

highly used medicinal plants have to be domesticated and cultivated. In the process of domestication, the most important step is the development of agrotechnology.

For

cultivation as sole crop or as intercrop in coconut, arecanut, rubber etc. and to increase the farm revenue, the medicinal plants such as Kaemferia galanga, Piper longum, Plumbago indica, Indigofera tinctoria, Holostemma ada- kodien, Kaemferia rotunda, Alpinia galanga, Asparagus racemosus etc. can be selected. Systematic experiments were carried out at AMPRS, Odakkali for standardisation of agro- techniques of Holostemma ada-kodien (Adapathiyan), Alpinia galanga (Chittaratha), Kaemferia rotunda (Chengazhiner kizhangu) and Curculigo orchioides (Nilappana). Harvest of Holostemma is done at the end of second year which yield about 500 kg roots per hectare. Alpinia galanga can be cultivated as intercrop in coconut gardens and young rubber plantations and it yield about 2.5 t rhizome per hectare at the end of third year. In the case of Kaemferia rotunda, the crop can be harvested after seven months to give 12-15 t fresh rhizome per hectare. Curculigo orchioides prefers shade and grows best as intercrop. The dry tuber yield is 1-1.5 t/ha if harvested during first year. Double the yield is obtained if harvested during second year.