IMPORTANCE OF KUNAPAJALA (TRADITIONAL LIQUID ORGANIC MANURE) OF VRIKSHAYURVEDA IN MEDICINAL PLANT CULTIVATION

Medicinal plants play an important role not only as traditional medicine but also as trade commodities. With depleting natural resources, cultivation of medicinal plants has become the need of the hour to meet the growing demand of herbal drug requirement in the field of medicine. But using chemicals in the form of pesticide and fertilizers may have undesirable impact on the quality of these plants as well as human health. Recently various state governments in India have come up with different schemes to cultivate medicinal plants through organic farming under Good Agricultural Practices (GAP ). “Vrikshayurveda” a sub branch of Ayurveda describes a particular type of liquid organic manure called “Kunapajala ” for this purpose. Scattered references are found regarding the effect of Kunapajala on medicinal plant cultivation. This review highlights the importance of organic farming and results of research works carried out on the effect of Kunapajala on medicinal plant cultivation.