Value Added Products from Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Medicinal plants are considered as nature’s antidote against human ailments and disorders having considerable agribusiness potential especially for the biodiversity-rich countries. The sane utilization of such flora lies in the development of value-added products. Value addition can be done directly through minor processing or indirectly through maintaining quality standard. The harvesting season and index for industrial utilization of some medicinal plants are summarized here. The processing and storing techniques after harvesting to maintain the quality standards along with sensory, macroscopic or microscopic evaluations and physico-chemical analysis are also discussed here. GACP and GMP are the two terms closely associated to collection and value addition in medicinal plants, the gist of which is also presented here. The different forms of value-added products like dust, pill, syrup, fortified food, cosmetics, tinctures, blended products, etc. are discussed in detail with some relevant pictures. The different processes like maceration, decoction, percolation, soxhleting, solvent extraction, SCFE, CCE, sonication, etc. are elaborated here. The biotechnological interventions for targeted raw material production, biopharming, characterizing and thereafter engineering the biosynthetic pathways to reorient the species to produce manifold active principles are having enormous potential in the field of drug development.