Eminent scientist and former CFTRI Director V. Prakash on Monday said strengthening institutional and marketing mechanisms for stronger link of herbals to rural centres of trade and urban and semi-urban markets will probably address multilayer problems faced by the growers of present day.
Inaugurating a joint international training workshop on ‘Herbal medicine: drug discovery from herbs, approaches, innovations and applications’, organised by JSS University and NAM S&T Centre, here, he said, the most important factors of technologies, ethics and environment would dominate the tomorrow’s market with a focus on safe product. India was a treasure house of a variety of herbal plants and it was important to select the best variety that suited our climate and agricultural market must be capitalised along with the knowledge of post-harvest protocols for herbals, which could be laid out, he said. Arun P. Kulashreshtha, Director-General, NAM S&T Centre, who was the guest of honour, said the developing countries with emerging economies had rich mineral resources, distinct biodiversity and abundant medicinal and aromatic plants. Such medicinal and aromatic plants were not only used as herbal medicines and in food and cosmetics, but also they were used as an important trade commodityJSS University Vice-chancellor B. Suresh thanked NAM S and T Centre for their support in organising the workshop.
