CHAPTER 32 



Medicinal and Aromatic Plants 



By W. W. Stockberger 

 Physiologist in Drug and Poisonous Plant Investigations, U. S. Dept. 



of Agriculture 



The market demand for the products of medicinal and aromatic plants 

 when compared with the demand for staple products such as cereals, fruits 

 or vegetables, is relatively very small, and is not sufficient to make them 

 promising crops for general cultivation. Many such plants which can be 

 grown and prepared for market with little difficulty, bring but a small 

 return, and hence their cultivation offers little prospect of profit. A number 

 of high-priced medicinal plants must be given care for two or more years 

 before a crop can be harvested, and, since expensive equipment is usually 

 required for their successful culture and preparation for market, the 

 production of such crops offers little encouragement to inexperienced 

 growers who are looking for quick returns and large profits from a small 

 investment of time and money. 



Requirements for Medicinal Plants. — Several medicinal and aromatic 

 plants, for which the demand is fairly constant, have been profitably grown 

 on a commercial basis, but the success of the growers has been due largely 

 to the care which they have taken to produce a uniform product of high 

 quality. However, the production of drugs of high quality requires skilled 

 management, experience in special methods of plant culture, acquaintance 

 with trade requirements and a knowledge of the influence of time of col- 

 lection and manner of preparation on those constituents of the drug which 

 determine its value. Small quantities of drugs produced without regard to 

 these conditions are apt to be poor in quality and so unattractive to dealers 

 and manufacturers that the product will not be salable at a price sufficient 

 to make their production profitable. 



The agricultural conditions generally prevailing in the United States 

 and in Canada are far more favorable to the growing of medicinal and 

 aromatic plants as a special industry for well-equipped cultivators than as a 

 side crop for general farmers. 



The growing of medicinal plants in the United States has hardly 

 passed beyond the experimental stage, and although several of these plants 

 promise satisfactory profits in suitable localities, any general attempt to 

 grow them on a commercial scale would soon result in over-stocking the 

 market. However, the demand for such plants as anise, belladonna, car- 



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