Rapid growth of India herbal industry, especially in the recent past, has caused the emergence of the large

number of industrial units engaged in manufacture of herbal formulations under various steams of Indian Medical Systems as the largest consumers of herbal raw drugs in the country, The Planning Commission Task Force on medicinal Plant (Anln., 2000) reports the existence of 8700 licensed pharmacies (7843 of ISM and 857 of Homeopathy). CERPA report (Anon. 2002), based on the information from the State Drug Controllers, estimates the number of ISM & H manufacturing units in the country as 8343 with category- wise distribution of these units as follows. The table above shows that herbal units manufacturing Ayurvedic formulations account for more than 80% of the total herbal industry. The herbal industry in the country has been traditionally responsible for maintaining its own quality standards. With the recent introduction of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guidelines by the Government of India, the herbal industry is now obliged to follow these and the state Licensing Authorities are in the process of implementing these guidelines. The estimates of number of botanicals in trade is estimated to very from 400 as mentioned in the report on medicinal plants commissioned by the Planning Commission of India (Anon. 2000) to 1500 (jain, 1996) and to more than 2000 fruits, leaves, shrubs, minerals as well as animals as used by Hamdard for production of Unani medicines (Bode,2004). EXIM Bank publication (Anon., 2003) that provides the first comprehensive list of 1200 raw drug entities pertaining to 880 plant identities in trade. The publication also brings out the source-wise analysis on botanical material in trade and reveals that 538 species (61%) were being collected from the

wild,88 species (10%) were being sourced from cultivation, 212 species (25%) were obtained available in India. Threat to the medicinal plant in trade dug to destructive harvesting has also been highlighted with 66% of the total species sourced from wild reported to be harvested destructively. AYUSH under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Gol sponsored CERPA study on medicinal plant (Anon. 2002) tabulates the break up of quantity and trade value in respect of only 162 plant species selected as very important by the Department of IS &H. CERPA study (Anon. 2002) is probably the first of its kind nation- wide study related to demand of medicinal plant. This study pegs the annual domestic demand of medicinal plant for the year 1999 - 2000 at 1,98,054.71 tonnes with a trade value of Rs.1099.18 crores. EXIM Bank publication (Anon. 2003) estimates the total annual consumption of botanicals in the country for the year 2001 as 1,28,000 tonnes with a trade value of Rs. 384 crores. Annual consumption of 117 medicinal plant species as 1,41,337 MT. The plant based raw drugs in trade are consumed by the manufacturing units engaged in preparing formulations under different Indian Systems of Medicine. An analysis of the 960 medicinal plant species in trade bring out that the highest proportion of the traded medicinal plant species is used under the Ayurvedic system of medicine (688), followed by Siddha (501), Unani (328), Swa-rigpa /Tibetan (197) and Homeopathy (146), tabulates the number of medicinal plant species used within and across various Indian systems of Medicine.

Traded raw drugs are obtained from various plant/ products of 960 plant species. Whereas whole plant forms single raw drug in case of some plant (Andrographis paniculata), only one part of many plants provides important raw drug (Cinnamomum tamala- leaves) and more than one raw drug is derived from different parts of some plants (Azadirachta indica- leaves, bark, flowers fruit. Wild resources were also wholly or largely meeting the requirement of about 82% of the quantity (1,15,065 MT pertaining to 96species, obtained from wild, out of a total of 1,41,337 MT pertaining to 117 species in high consumption consumed annually by the domestic herbal industry. An annual trade value corresponding to the trade of 3,19,500 MT of botanical raw drugs in the country works out to Rs. 1,069 crores for the year 2005-2006. Out of the 960 medicinal plant species recorded in trade as raw drugs in the country, 178 species are consumed in volumes exceeding 100 MT per year. Root tubers of at least three different medicinal plant species i.e. Pueraria tuberose (Roxb. Ex Willd.) DC., ipomoea mauritiana jacq. And Adenia hondala are traded and used as Vidari. Whereas the tubers of Pueraria tuberose and lpomoea mauritiana are used inmost parts of the country, use of the tubers of Adenia hondala is restricted largely to Kerala, where these are used after detoxification. Material obtained from different plant species, linked to Shankhapushpi and Vidari is recorded in trade. In this scenario it is not possible to arrive at a reasonable estimate of consumption

levels or potential demand for a specific plant species out of those linked to Shankhapushpi or vidari. Under the 10th five year Plan, NMPB played a lead role in promoting commercial cultivation of medicinal plant species. For this purpose a list of 32 species was prepared and their cultivation over an area of 35,000 hectares was supported via 4,250 projects over the last five years under a subsidy scheme (Kaka et al., 2006)