AMRITANJALI AYURVED PVT LTD

Saheli Nagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan

Bamboo is one of the commercially cultivated crops in India and it is also considered as ‘a poor man’s timber’. India is the second largest producer of Bamboo in the world after China. The yearly bamboo production in the country is estimated at around 3.23 million tons. In Asia, bamboo is the most integrated part of the culture and is used as a substitute to woods. Although there are around 136 species of bamboo that exist in the country, still only some of them are commercially feasible.

Santalum album commonly known as East Indian Sandalwood or Chandan belongs to the family Santalaceae. It is highly valuable and becoming endangered species. It is distributed all over the country and more than 90% lies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu covering 8300 sq kms.  Sandalwood plays an important role in the religious life of Indians. The essential oil obtained from this wood has occupied significant place in perfumery industries/market. Although it is available in some other countries still the Indian Sandalwood has retained its dominance over other sources because of its quality.

Sandalwood is light demanding and can be easily suppressed by faster-growing species. Cultivation of sandal in India is less attempted though the potential is high. Sandal trees freely produce seed and natural regeneration occurs both via seedlings and through root suckers after trees have been uprooted and the stump removed from the ground.

Moringa oleifera Lamarck,    originally from India, is widely distributed in many tropical regions; in the Pacific region (Aregheore 2002), in West Africa (Freiberger et al 1998; Lockett et al 2000), as well as Central America and the Caribbean (Ramachandran et al 1980; Foidl et al 1999).

It is a multi-purpose plant cultivated for medicinal applications and used as food and feed. Seeds of Moringa were extracted for oil and curry powder (Golh 1998) and have been used for cleaning water. In some places in Vietnam, Moringa leaves are used for food (Pham Hoang Ho 1970). Agronomic trials with Moringa (Manh et al 2003) show that the plant can grow well in hilly areas, in weathered soils of low fertility in Tinh Bien district, An Giang province. However, information about growth of Moringa in the acid soil regions of the Mekong Delta is almost absent.

Moringa foliage is known as a rich protein source, low anti-nutritional factors (Makka and Becker 1996). Moringa foliages is therefore a potential inexpensive protein source (Sarwatt 2004). 

The aim of the present study was firstly to measure some agronomic characteristics of Moringa for biomass production and secondly to evaluate its use as a basal diet for goat production. A comparison between methods of feeding Moringa and Leucaena (by hanging the branches or putting them in the feed trough) was included in the study in view of the findings by Theng Kouch et al (2003) that hanging the branches of forage shrubs supported higher feed intakes and digestibility as compared with putting it in the feed trough.

A decoction of the bark, sometimes mixed with the flowers, has been used against fever, diarrhoea, inflammation of the gums, toothache, gonorrhoea, wounds

This is an indigenous tree and has been planted throughout the State in gardens, villages and along the roads for the shade