INTRODUCTION. lxvii 



necessity of extensively growing medicinal plants especially in 

 India where, with, little difficulty, economic plants of all lands 

 can be cultivated.* 



The establishment of medicinal farms in well selected locali- 

 ties* will exercise scientific control over the cultivation of medici- 

 nal herbs and plants. Regarding the advantages of conducting 

 a farm of this nature Messrs. Burroughs Wellcome and Co., who 

 have established such a one, write : — 



" 1. A drug may be treated or worked up immediately it 

 has been collected. 



" 2. Herbs may be dried, if necessary, directly they are cut, 

 before fermentation and other deteriorative changes have set in. 



" 3. Freedom is ensured from caprice on the part of collec- 

 tors, who, in gathering wild herbs, are very difficult to control 

 in the matter of adulteration, both accidental and intentional. 



" 4. Opportunity is provided to select and cultivate that 

 particular strain of a plant which has been found by chemical 

 and physiological tests to be the most active, and which gives 

 the most satisfactory preparations." 



We know there are many plants mentioned by Hindu 

 medical authors which are not procurable now. We have to 

 refer to such names as those of Kakoli, Ksira kakoli, 

 Medha, Maha Medha, Jivaka, Risabha &c. Perhaps this 

 extinction of valuable medicinal plants of ancient India is 

 well explained by what Mr. J. L. Stingel writes in the 

 American Journal of Pharmacy for 1912 (pp. 299 et seq) 

 regarding Hydrastis that with the progress of civilisation 

 the plant has diminished. He says that " the scarcity of 

 this valuable drug cannot be entirely attributed to lack of plants 



problems in connection with several score different plants has a difficult 

 task ahead, but one which may pave the way toward American independence 

 in drug science." 



Scientific cultivation of drug plants in this country will make India 

 independent in drug science. 



* Lieuteuant-Colonel Sir Leonard Rogers, M. D., F. R. C. P., K. C. I. E. 

 I. M. S., the founder of the Calcutta Tropical School of Medicine is reported 

 to have said before the Indian Industry Commission, that " most of the drugs 

 imported into India were absolute refuse, and considering that one-half of the 

 drugs in the British pharmacopoeia are indigenous to India and that most of the 

 rest could be cultivated there is clearly an opportunity of developing an 

 industry that has been almost neglected, and if India is to grow its own drugs 

 it must take care that it gets them unadulterated." 



