Issue No 11, January 1999.

NOTICE: Hard copies of the Australian New Crops Newsletter are available from the publisher, Dr Rob Fletcher. Details of availability are included in the Advice on Publications Available.

7. Entering the herb industry

Peter Purbrick
Purchasing Manager
MediHerb Pty Ltd
124 McEvoy Street
PO Box 713
Warwick Queensland 4370
Telephone: 07 4661 0700
Facsimile: 07 4661 0788
Email: peter@mediherb.com.au
Web Site: http://www.mediherb.com

MediHerb Pty Ltd is a manufacturer of quality medicinal herbal extracts for the professional practitioner market.

The company is constantly sourcing and purchasing herbal raw material for their manufacturing facility. Some of this material is at present imported.

A list of species currently used has been provided elsewhere in this issue of the newsletter and those species currently imported have been identified.

MediHerb prefers to obtain, wherever possible, the best grade of organically grown or wild-crafted material. The company believes it is possible for Australian organically grown and wild-crafted medicinal herbs to achieve the same quality as imported material, and consequently have been keen to encourage Australian growers of medicinal herbs.

The market for medicinal herbal raw material in Australia is a specialist market but it is steadily growing in size.

However, the market remains small, relative to other agricultural commodities, with prices subject to market forces.

General guidelines provided by the company for prospective herb growers are as follows:

Growers should only select those species for which there is commercial demand and those which suit the climatic conditions and soil types available on their properties.
Once seed stocks or propagation materials have been obtained, an experimental planting should be attempted.

A list of suppliers of herbal seed stocks has been included elsewhere in this issue of the newsletter.

The five main areas in commercial herb growing which must be considered and costed are:

1. Seed propagation and seedling transplanting

2. Crop maintenance and weed control

3. Harvesting

The specific requirements for a plant material should be checked prior to harvest.

Plant material can be harvested after dew has dried in the mornings.

Dead leaves and other plant material should be excluded.

4. Drying

In general, plant material must be shade dried. Maximum drying temperature is 45 C.

The optimum drying situation is an in-sulated shed (kiln) with a thermostatically controlled heat source and ventilation designed to remove moisture.

In general, there is a moisture loss of 80- 90% from freshly harvested plant materials.

There must be no mould or fungal growth during the drying process. Material is considered dry once the moisture content has fallen to 8-10%. At this point leaves will crumble when rubbed and stems will snap when bent.

5. Cutting/ final presentation

There must be no extraneous animal material. The tolerance limit for other organic/inorganic extraneous material is 1%.

MediHerb Pty Ltd requires 20 gm dried voucher samples for every item supplied. Any purchase will depend on sample acceptance.

When dry, plant materials can be prepared in a number of ways depending on the specification for the particular item:

Cut or milled,
Cut or milled and sifted to remove fine dust,
Rubbed through various mesh screens to remove woody stalks,
Packed in clean new lined woven ply produce bags, or in heavy cardboard cartons with poly-liners. These are airtight and will prevent the contents rom reabsorbing moisture.

All product should be supplied to MediHerb Pty Ltd on an FOB carrier basis either ex farm or ex transport depot. Details should be confirmed at the time of the order.

All material supplied must be of the same quality as the samples provided. There must be a certification of botanical identity for each product supplied and the manufacturer can assist with the details required.

Certification of organic farming practices should also be supplied where applicable. Each product supplied is identified by a batch number.

For matters related to the production of medicinal herbs, the company has provided a list of people and organisations available for consultation which is included elsewhere in this issue of the newsletter.

Any claims made by authors in the Australian New Crops Newsletter are presented by the Editors in good faith. Readers would be wise to critically examine the circumstances associated with any claims to determine the applicability of such claims to their specific set of circumstances. This material can be reproduced, with the provision that the source and the author (or editors, if applicable) are acknowledged and the use is for information or educational purposes. Contact with the original author is probably wise since the material may require updating or amendment if used in other publications. Material sourced from the Australian New Crops Newsletter cannot be used out of context or for commercial purposes not related to its original purpose in the newsletter

Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email: r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au

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originally created by: GK; latest update 6 June 1999 by: RF