With a view to promote awareness about medicinal plants among school students, the Pharmacognosy Unit of the Government Ayurveda College, Poojappura, is setting up herbal gardens in 50 schools in the district with the sponsorship of the National Medicinal Plants Board.
The scheme was inaugurated on Wednesday at Karthika Thirunal Government Girls School, Manacaud, with Health Minister V S Sivakumar planting a sapling of the Golden Shower tree (kanikonna) on the school grounds.
Eighty species of medicinal plants will be provided to each of the selected schools, according to project investigator G R Jayakumar, Research Officer at Ayurveda Research Institute (ARI), Poojappura.
“The schools were selected according to certain criteria such as number of students and teachers, area available etc.,” he said. “Based on these, we have selected 50 schools from around 83 applicants.”
The two-year project, which the implementors are aiming to complete within a year, was launched with the supply of 50 potted plants and 30 tree species to the Manaucaud school. Each plant had a board next to it stating its Latin and Sankrit names and its medicinal uses.
In his inaugural address, the Minister said that the project was an attempt not only to increase awareness among students but also to meet our demand for medicinal plant resources to be used in manufacture of ayurvedic medicines.
“As far as medicinal plants are concerned, we only grow around 60 per cent of what we require,” he said, adding that the programme is part of an effort to remove Kerala’s status as a consumer state.
The aim of the project, according to Chief Executive Officer of ARI KG Sreekumar is that once the herbal garden has been established, the schools should not only maintain it but also must try and expand it by bringing in more plants. They can also approach the Pharmacognosy unit for technical assistance.
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