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 befin 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, K§ira kakoli, 
MedhS, Mah& 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. 0. P., K. 0. 1. 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.” 
