Herbal Medicine: Open Access

Sustainable production of medicinal and aromatic plants in Salt-affected lands in India

Experiment using 5 sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) cultivars in sodic soils (pH2 9.3) showed that the highest yield was recorded in CSLT-13, followed by CSLT-12- 1. The cultivar CSLT-5 was of the linalool chemotype, yielded 62.36% linalool in oil, while CSLT-13 and CSLT-9 which were methyl chavicol chemotypes  yielded 69.6% and 57% methyl chavicol, respectively. On the basis of crop diversification study, production efficiency (61.3 kg/ha/day) was higher with sweet basil–matricaria (Matricaria chamomilla L) cropping system over the traditional rice–wheat system. Energy-use efficiency of sweet basil–matricaria was higher (11.99) than that of the rice–wheat (11.43) cropping system. Highest benefit: cost ratio was recorded with sweet basil–matricaria (2.74), followed by chili (Capsicum spp.)–garlic (Allium sativum L) (2.42) cropping systems. In an another experiment with eleven genotypes of dill (Anthum graveolens L.) the cultivar ‘CSS 1’ recorded the highest seed yield across three years under different alkalinity locations. Five Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) genotypes were screened and evaluated in sodic soils.  The highest oil content was found in BTP 1-K and BTP 1-N followed by BTP 1A and this genotype was found to be suitable for producing more biomass and bio-energy and rehabilitation of degraded lands..

Author(s): D.K.Sharma

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