ADVERTORIAL
Herbal farming and manufacturing update
by Warren Morey | Herbalist and Manager of the Pharmaceutical Plant Company
Manufacturing of Liquid Herbal extracts remains busy based on strong customer demand .
The new batch of aged garlic extract was processed recently , making the entire factory smell like a pizza shop . Garlic extract is a popular remedy in animal health on Organic Dairy farms .
PPC has an extensive range of Herbal Extracts and Fresh Plant Tinctures but the 80 / 20 rule still applies to this business like all others . 80 % of sales come from 20 % of the herbs . The high-volume herbs are adaptogens like Withania / Ashwagandha and Siberian Ginseng , Liver tonics like St Marys Thistle , anti-inflammatory herbs like Turmeric and Immune herbs like Echinacea and Reishi .
Farming by Ronald van de Winckel This season the weather for growing medicinal plants in Tasmania has been quite good . Enough rain so at least the perennials and younger medicinal trees and shrubs ( ginkgo , birches , raspberry , hawthorns can go without any additional water . Most of the annual herbs still needed some additional water to support them as young seedlings in the field . In general , we need only about 20 % of the water what is normally used in cropping vegetables .
Some years ago , we changed from keeping cattle to sheep because sheep are very useful as farmhands ( 200 of them !) to clean out weeds in herb fields while also putting some manure in at the same time . Of course , not in the middle of summer but soon after harvest until well into spring . It seems they prefer the weeds growing under the herbs instead of green grass headlands around them . The photo shows sheep enjoying a few days in the lavender .
Covid is still playing havoc with our yearly planning of what medicinal plants to grow and process . It seems demand for adaptogenic herbs , Astragalus , Withania / Ashwagandha , which increased a lot in the past 2-3 years will still be strong , as is the need for relaxing herbs like passionflower . In the past 40 years of growing herbs there have always been “ winners and losers ” in the 100 + assortment of medicinal plants we grow . But never as unexpected and quick . Adapting to changing market demands is especially important when growing organic certified and perennial herbs .
A lot more labour goes into an organic crop than in a conventionally grown crop before harvest so knowing that there will be a demand is crucial . Luckily if herbalist demand changes we can find another use for most medicinal plants by drying the harvest for tea instead of producing TGA licensed liquid tinctures .
If you have further questions , please email me at warren . morey @ ppcherbs . com . au
Disclaimer : The views and opinions expressed in these advertorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ATMS or its Directors .
176 | vol29 | no3 | JATMS