Comparative Analysis of Different Technologies

Exponential increase in the demand of phytopharmaceuticals has brought many developing and underdeveloped countries in limelight. Since, many countries which are the hot spots of biodiversity can be the future leaders in pharmaceuticals. Since, these countries are home to some of blockbuster medicinal plants.

Now with hope to become global leaders, many countries have started taking different measures. India, is one of them and it has decided to come up with mission to promote medicinal plants cultivation and processing. The mission is called “National Mission on Medicinal Plants”. So, an opportunity is provided, but the steps needed to use this opportunity in the most effective manner is not mentioned.

In this article, I have tried to delineate the steps involved in becoming a successful entrepreneur in the field of medicinal plants cultivation and processing (Figure 1).

1. The first step is to identify the medicinal plants which you want to cultivate. This step is important as different medicinal plant require different extraction technologies.
2. Once you have decided a list of medicinal plants which you want to grow, identify the extraction technologies, which are used for those medicinal plants.
3. Now, these extraction technologies need to compared to come up with the best extraction technology. In order to compare those technologies, we need to decide parameters.
4. The rationale behind deciding parameters will depend on the different perspective, which are taken into consideration. Now, this is a very important step because inappropriate selection of perspectives can lead to serious failure of the project. So, the perspectives you need to consider are environment, human health, product quality, cost, yield, process complexity, process robustness, time and market.
5. Now, decide upon both the quantitative and qualitative parameters for each perspective and collect data. Refer to figure 1 to get sample parameters.
6. Once data for each every parameter, perform comparative analysis using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP).
7. Analyse the result and select the best technology based on result.
8. Once the best technology is selected, select the suitable medicinal plant and go ahead with the project. 

The outcome of this procedure will be that the technology, which you will come across will be best for you in both the short and long run.

This article is followed by Quiz On Medicinal Plants.

Other articles related to herbal are:

1) Herbal Health

2) Herbal formulas