Modern Development in Medicinal Plant Cultivation

Abstract

Over thousands of years, nature has given us better environments for the growth and development of medicinal plants. Plants have been used as medicines since ancient times because people thought they were safe and had benefit. Even now, 80% of the world’s population relies mostly on alternative medicine systems for their primary healthcare needs. Several kinds of secondary metabolites, also known as bioactive plant elements, are found in plants and are what give them their medical value in nature. For the growth of a greater quantity of secondary metabolites from the plants and their by-products, scientific agriculture allows the application of modern technical elements like mutation, polyploidy, and hybridization. Simple approaches are required for the cultivation, gathering, and preservation of medicinal plants in order to maintain their therapeutic potential. Alkaloids, glycosides, tannins, resins, volatile oils, and other bioactive phytochemicals are only a few examples of the phytochemicals that play a major role in the pharmacological actions of medicinal and aromatic plants. The physical environment, including sunshine, temperature, rainfall, and soil type, has a significant impact on the growth and development of medicinal plants as well as the secondary metabolites that result from those processes. The world’s most significant sources of herbal goods are medicinal plants, yet they are vanishing quickly. We stressed the need for sufficient consideration of resource management and conservation techniques for the sustainable use of medicinal plant resources, including in situ and ex situ conservation and growing approaches. We advise applying biotechnological methods (such as tissue culture, micropropagation, synthetic seed technology, and techniques based on molecular markers) to increase production and alter the potency of medicinal plants. The numerous innovations employed in farming methods are described in this article.