India is a storehouse of medicinal plants. It is one of the richest countries in the world as regards genetic resources of medicinal plants are concerned. Even though the landmass of India occupies only two per cent of the globe, but it occupies 11% of the total known world flora and is one of the world's top 12 mega diversity nations. Out of the 18 hotspots in vegetation in the world, two spots are in India. More over the agro climatic conditions are conducive for introducing and domesticating new exotic plant varieties.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 80% of the populations of developing countries rely on traditional medicines, mostly plant drugs, for their primary health care needs. Also, modern pharmacopoeia still contains at least 25% drugs derived from plants and many others which are synthetic analogues built on prototype compounds isolated from plants. Demand for herbal products is increasing in both developing and developed countries due to growing recognition and affordability of herbal products, being non-narcotic, having no or lesser side-effects, easy availability at affordable prices. On the other hand sometime it is the only source of health care available to the population of rural areas and poor classes of the urban areas.

Medicinal plants as a group comprise approximately 8000 species and account for around 50% of all the higher flowering plant species of India. Millions of rural households use medicinal plants in a self-help mode. Over one and a half million practitioners of the Indian System of Medicine in the oral and codified streams use medicinal plants in preventive, promotive and curative applications. Though India has a rich biodiversity, the growing demand is putting a heavy strain on the existing resources. While the demand for medicinal plants is growing, some of them are increasingly being threatened in their natural habitat. For meeting the future needs cultivation of medicinal plant has to be encouraged.

The medicinal plants being used by the industry comes mostly from the wild source which leads to the over exploitation of the raw material. Around 800 species are used in production by industry among which 2-3% species are under commercial cultivation. Remaining part comes from the wild source by using destructive techniques of collection of various plant parts. This poses a definite threat to the genetic stocks and to the diversity of medicinal plants.

Keeping in view all the above aspects in mind, the company feels its responsibility towards mankind and thus promoting farmers to cultivate the medicinal plants by providing them the available technical know-how and buy back assurance of cultivated products. Besides this, company is having Agro-tech department where a team of Agronomists develop and simplify the technology of mass cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants to get consistent supply of the best quality raw materials. To get the best quality raw materials with timely delivery, company is cultivating some of the plant species in their farm houses for their own consumption.

The demand for medicinal plants is ever increasing due to scientific development and people's fascination towards herbals. Procurement from wild has its own problems and risks. We need to cultivate for larger production and authenticity. Cultivation will help in conservation of some of our medicinal herbs that are being pushed to the danger of extinction. Cultivation of medicinal plants are not only economical but are ecologically safer too.