Herbal business. Ways to develop a business on medicinal herbs

The idea of a business in the collection and sale of medicinal herbs and plants is suitable for anyone who wants to have additional source earnings, without initial capital. Also, a huge plus of this business is unity with nature, which helps to feel real happiness and forget about pressing matters.

To make money on herbs and plants, you need to understand which of them are medicinal, what they look like, where they grow and when to collect them.

Medicinal herbs and plants are known from our distant ancestors, who used herbs to treat all kinds of diseases. Today, treatment with herbs and plants is called traditional medicine.

Medicinal drug manufacturers still use many herbs and plants to make medicines and essential oils.

One of my friends from childhood was fond of various plants. A few years ago, he decided to make money from his hobby. In his village, which is located near the forest, many medicinal herbs and plants. He collects them and dries them in the attic of his house. The comrade purchased packing equipment in the amount of about 20,000 rubles. the same price includes the order packaging material. For one season of collecting herbs, it turns out about 90,000 rubles. net profit that he receives thanks to his knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants. He sells his products in all sorts of ways. But he considers the most interesting sale, through a fairly well-known online store, for the sale of medicinal herbs and plants. Next year he plans to compose whole compositions from useful plants specifically for certain human diseases and ailments. Again, this is helped by his knowledge in this area.

In the future, he also plans to produce essential oils, ointments and cosmetics. But such a business requires more serious investments and deeper knowledge in the field of chemistry. For my friend, I think it's a matter of time.

I have prepared for you a small list of herbs and plants with prices:

Lingonberry - a decoction of the leaves; disinfectant, diuretic
St. John's wort - mental disorders, anti-depressant
Cranberries - many vitamins, especially vitamin C
Leuzea safflower-like (moral root) - horses and rhizomes; with a breakdown, fatigue and decreased sexual activity
Raspberry - fruits and leaves; as a diaphoretic, antipyretic
Mother and Stepmother - for cough, whooping cough, bronchitis
Mint - cosmetics, pharmacology; sedative, diuretic, increases appetite
Sea buckthorn - sea buckthorn oil, restorative effect, burns, bedsores, ulcers, etc.
Plantain - hemostatic, anti-inflammatory
Chamomile - cosmetology, essential oils; antiseptic, depressant
Licorice - cough remedy, respiratory disease
Sage - decoction; essential oil; tinctures for ulcers, diuretic, hair loss
Rosehip - a lot of vitamins, with anemia and exhaustion

Prices for dried herbs and plants:

Dried lingonberries - from 50 - 75 grams - 75 - 130 rubles.
Dried St. John's wort - 30 rubles / bunch
Dried cranberries - 200 grams - 200 rubles.
Leuzea safflower-like (moral root) dried - 50 grams - 80 rubles.
Dried raspberries - 50 grams - 110 rubles.
Dried coltsfoot - 100 grams - 100 rubles.
Dried mint - 1kg. - 200 - 250 rubles.
Dried sea buckthorn - 30 kg - 10500 rubles; 50 grams - 70 rubles.
Dried plantain - 50 grams - 50 rubles.
Dried chamomile - 1kg - 100 rubles.
Dried licorice - 50 grams - 50 rubles.
Dried sage - 1kg - 500 rubles.
Dried rosehip - 50 grams - 50 rubles. / 10kg - 1100 rub.

Summing up, we can say that the collection of medicinal herbs and plants at the initial stage cannot be called an independent business, but it is earnings on the gifts of nature, the same as picking berries and mushrooms. These two earnings can be combined and get much more interesting. Over time, if you show your perseverance and find a good market, like my friend, then you will be able to provide yourself with a completely normal average annual income, while working only in summer season. Good luck!

Read also:

Types and uses of medicinal herbs

Medicinal herbs are considered to have at least one substance with a healing effect. Usually they are used in addition to the main treatment or as a prevention of various diseases. The Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation contains about 160 medicinal herbs approved for use. Useful substances can be located in different parts plants: in grass (chamomile, string, snakehead, fumes), in seeds, fruits (coriander, anise, dope, flax, sleeping pills poppy, large plantain), in flowers (calendula officinalis, blue cornflower), in bark, roots, kidneys.

They produce medicines for internal and external use. The first group includes such forms of use as infusion, decoction, water-alcohol, oil extracts (tincture, extracts). In the second - herbal bath, body wrap, lotion, compress. Herbal preparations, which combine plants with similar properties, are also popular. Among them there are anti-asthmatic, diuretic, pectoral, choleretic, carminative, sedative, stomach astringents, bitter, diaphoretic, gargle, multivitamin and many other fees.

The herbal processing business is highly profitable due to the low cost of equipment and the constant demand for this type of product. The popularity of medicinal herbs is dictated by low price, safety, the possibility of long-term use and combination with other dosage forms.

Production technology

At full cycle The following stages can be distinguished in the production of medicinal preparations: the cultivation of raw materials, assembly, drying, processing and packaging.

For cultivation, you can organize a plantation, which will require purchase land plot, machinery, seeds and fertilizers. Such production has a lot of advantages: you can regulate the volumes and types of plants, raw materials will always be available. But for a beginner, it would be better to buy raw materials from pickers and subject them to further processing, since cultivation requires high costs and knowledge of complex plant assembly technology. When buying raw materials, you need to be careful and carefully check the herbs you buy. It is better, of course, to control the drying process of raw materials, because the quality of the future product depends on it. GOST 24027.2-80 contains methods for determining the quality of plant materials. There are also special institutions involved in the study of medicinal raw materials: the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, the Center for Metrology and Standardization or laboratories at pharmaceutical plants.

An incomplete herbal processing cycle is as follows. The raw materials are sorted and cleaned of foreign matter and rotten parts, after which they are sent for drying. Drying is a way to preserve plants. With the natural method, the plants are placed in the shade, in a ventilated area. Thus, active substances and color are preserved as much as possible. When machine drying, the mode is selected according to the composition of the plants: herbs with essential oils are dried at a temperature of 25-30 ° C, laying out in a thick layer, alkaloid- and glycoside-containing - 50-60 ° C, vitamin - quickly at a temperature of 80-100 ° C, gradually reducing it to 40°C. Signs of the end of drying: for roots, rhizomes - a break with a characteristic crack; for leaves and grass - rubbed with fingers; for veins of leaves and stems of grass - they break; for flowers - dry to the touch. Juicy dried fruits, when squeezed in the hand, should not stick together into a lump.

Table. Yield of some types of medicinal raw materials after drying (per 100 kg of freshly harvested plants)

Plants	Type of raw material	The amount of dry raw materials, kg
Birch	kidneys	40-45
hawthorn blood red	Fruit
Cowberry	Leaves
Oregano	Grass	26-30
St. John's wort
Viburnum ordinary	Bark	38-40
Buckthorn brittle		40-45
Linden heart-shaped	flowers
Raspberry ordinary	Fruits (berries)	16-18
Pine	kidneys	38-40
Bearberry	Leaves
Blueberry	Berries
Rose hip	Fruit	32-33

dryer (200-700 thousand rubles)

chopper (170-270 thousand rubles);

vibrating screens (9-30 thousand rubles / piece);

mixer (about 160 thousand rubles);

filling and packaging machine (from 250 thousand to 1 million rubles, depending on performance);

birch (leaf) - 70 rubles / kg

birch (buds) - 380 rubles / kg

valerian - 300 rubles / kg

chamomile (flowers) - 176 rubles / kg

motherwort - 70 rubles / kg

plantain - 115 rubles / kg

thyme - 130 rubles / kg

licorice (root) - 70 rubles / kg

thermopsis - 190 rubles / kg

burdock - 130-150 rubles / kg

eleutherococcus (root) - 140 rubles / kg

birch (leaf) - 14 rubles.

birch (buds) - 60 rubles.

chamomile (flowers) - 26 rubles.

valerian - 30 rubles.

motherwort - 15 rubles.

plantain - 20 rubles.

licorice (root) - 14 rubles.

thyme - 16 rubles.

burdock - 16 rubles.

eleutherococcus (root) - 18 rubles.

List of medical devices that the applicant is ready to produce.

Constituent documents:

charter;

memorandum of association;

protocol, regulation, decision on the establishment of the organization, on the appointment of the director.

Registration documents:

Certificate of state registration as legal entity;

Certificate of registration with the tax authority;

Certificate of registration of changes in case of changes.

Statistics codes (letter from the State Statistics Committee);

Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;

Documents confirming the consent of the authorities local government to locate the production of medical oxygen in the respective territory.

Sanitary and epidemiological conclusion on conformity, on conformity of production medicines(medical oxygen) to the requirements of sanitary regulations.

Documents confirming that the applicant has buildings, premises and equipment belonging to him on the right of ownership or on another legal basis, necessary for the implementation of the licensed activity.

Documents confirming the qualifications of specialists corresponding to the licensing requirements;

Diploma of higher or secondary specialized education (chemical-technological, biotechnological, pharmaceutical);

Certificate of professional development

A document confirming the work experience in the specialty for at least 3 years.

Information about the enterprise (master file), indicating that the license applicant has the ability to fulfill license requirements and conditions.

Specification - requirements for the quality of materials and products used in production (raw materials packaging).

Instruction, methodology, procedure - instructions for implementation certain types operations.

Protocol for a series - reflects the process of production of each series of products.

Note.

Weight loss after drying of raw materials is 80% for leaves and berries, 75% for flowers, 70% for grass, 65% for fruits, roots and rhizomes, 60% for buds, and 40% for bark. The yield of dry raw materials from freshly harvested plants, depending on the collection area, may differ slightly from the given data.

Dried plants are crushed on cutting machines. The degree of grinding is regulated by a special sieve and is determined by the purpose of the plants: herbs for baths and poultices are cut into pieces no more than 2 mm, and fees and teas for internal use crushed depending on the part of the plant (leaves, flowers and grass are crushed to particles no larger than 5 mm, stems, bark, rhizomes and roots - no more than 3 mm, fruits and seeds - no more than 0.5 mm). Some parts of plants bypass this stage of processing (flowers, small inflorescences, some types of seeds and berries).

Next, the herbs enter the mixer, where the fees are prepared. Salt components and essential oils in an alcohol solution (1:10) are added to the mixed mass by spraying, then dried at a temperature not exceeding 60 degrees.

Healing fees are packed in 50, 100, 150 and 200 grams per carton boxes lined with parchment paper or placed in a double paper bag beforehand. Bulk raw materials are stored in a dry, ventilated room at a humidity of not more than 50%, in a tightly closed package. Packages, paper and cloth bags, boxes, boxes lined with clean white paper, cans are used as packaging. Prepackaged herbs are stored in racks or cabinets. The shelf life of flowers, leaves and grass does not exceed 1-2 years, fruits - 2 years, and rhizomes, roots and bark - 2-3 years.

In addition to the usual cutting and mixing, there are other ways of processing plant materials: obtaining dry extracts and production aromatic oils. These types of production require expensive equipment, but may take place in the future, as they bring high income.

Purchase of raw materials and equipment

For the production of medicinal herbs, you will need to purchase the following equipment:

The productivity of such a line is about 14 thousand packages of 100 grams per day.

Wholesale prices for dried raw materials:

The wholesale price of the goods depends on the volume of the pack, usually they sell packs of 50, 100 grams. The markup in such cases is more than 50% (prices per 50 grams).

Products sold in filter bags have an even higher markup. For example, a pack of 30 grams of valerian costs 21 rubles (30 grams of monograss costs 18 rubles).

Premises and staff

The premise in which drug collections are made should include a manufacturing area, a formulation and quality control laboratory, a storage area, and ancillary areas. The total area of the building is about 200-300 sq. meters.

For personnel, it will be necessary to hire operators for equipment and qualified workers with pharmaceutical, chemical, chemical-technological, biological or biotechnological education. Each employee must follow the hygiene rules at the enterprise: undergo a medical examination, wear overalls, do not smoke, eat, drink in the industrial and warehouse area, do not come into contact with open products without gloves, wash hands properly.

Documentation

According to the regulation of July 6, 2012, the production of medicinal products derived from plant materials is subject to licensing. It is necessary to pass laboratory accreditation, certification of production, approve the production technology in the Pharmaceutical Committee, obtain permission from the SES and firefighters.

The following documents are required to obtain a license:

You should also register product prices with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy. The license is issued for a year.

In the list of documents establishing technological process, includes:

It may take about 150 thousand rubles to complete all the documentation.

Investment and payback

The initial investment required to open a business for the production of medicinal herbs, taking into account the rental of premises, registration, salary, purchase of new equipment and raw materials for the production of 7 thousand packages per day, will be about 4.5-5 million rubles. With active sales, the business will pay off in six months.

Marketing

For the Russian population, herbal treatment is an ineradicable tradition, so there is no need to advertise the herbs themselves. But you still have to spend money on the "promotion" of the brand and time to find a buyer. When selling herbs and herbal preparations, it is worth considering the popularity of a particular type of product. Most wanted chamomile, senna, sage, kidney tea, bearberry, valerian, linden and oak bark, as well as pectoral, urological, sedative, choleretic and antihemorrhoidal collections are used. The production of medicinal herbs in convenient and functional packaging will be positive for sales: the release of collections in filter bags, in small packages.

Cherukhina Christina

- portal of business plans and guidelines

The idea of the business is to collect various medicinal herbs and plants for subsequent sale.

Let's look at a few examples, from which it will be clear what potential income can be brought by the activity of harvesting medicinal herbs and plants.

This time-tested natural remedy for colds, asthma and stomach ulcers has a powerful immune-modulating effect, significantly increases the body's resistance and has an antioxidant effect.

Also, the roots of the plant are used in Food Industry, for the manufacture of coffee, cocoa, marinades, compotes, jelly, flour products, halva, caramel, marshmallow and chocolate.

Dry extract of licorice root costs 1,850 rubles per 1 kilogram.

Intended markets for licorice root:

Sales to food and pharmaceutical companies. The requirements for the purchased products must be found out by contacting the purchasing company directly.
Implementation through various trading platforms on the Internet (Avito.ru, Slando.ru and others);

Elecampane root is used for medical purposes as an anti-inflammatory, choleretic, diuretic, hemostatic agent.

Dry extract of elecampane root costs 1,350 rubles per 1 kilogram

Intended markets for elecampane root:

Implementation of shops and pharmacies involved in the sale of medicinal herbs in your city;
Sales to pharmaceutical companies. The requirements for the purchased products must be found out by contacting the purchasing company directly.
The search for potential buyers can be carried out either through telephone directories or via the Internet (a significant number of requests are issued for the request “buy licorice root”)
Implementation through various trading platforms on the Internet (Avito.ru, Slando.ru and others);
Implementation through your friends.

Medicinal plant "Yarrow"

Yarrow is used to stop various bleeding, to get rid of worms, to treat atherosclerosis, bronchial asthma, liver diseases and gastritis. It is useful in gastric ulcers with reduced or normal level acidity of gastric juice. With the help of a decoction or infusion of this medicinal plant, burns, wounds with pus, psoriasis and eczema can be cured.

Dry collection of yarrow costs 300 rubles per 1 kilogram.

Intended Markets for Yarrow

Implementation of shops and pharmacies involved in the sale of medicinal herbs in your city;
Sales to pharmaceutical companies (Yarrow preparations are widely used in medicine).

Abstracts

As can be seen from the examples, the collection of medicinal herbs and plants can become a very profitable business, and the collection costs are negligible. (the cost mainly includes fuel and lubricants and packaging). Besides this species activities have a beneficial effect on health (Hiking in nature hasn't hurt anyone yet).

The activity of collecting medicinal herbs and plants can also be considered as an additional income, without dismissal from the main place of work, this type of business is also suitable for pensioners and students. If you think of collecting herbs as a larger project, then we recommend that you familiarize yourself with.

Now a lot of people are looking for ideas for their own business, and herbs and teas are becoming more and more popular, so every day dozens of people across Russia decide for themselves: "I will open my own business for collecting and selling herbs" because it's so simple: "collect and sell!" and immediately start looking on the Internet where you can donate herbs and, accordingly, find our or similar sites.

Accordingly, we found the site and decided to call or write, and at the other end I will answer you with a sad voice, and most likely with a refusal.

Why did I decide to share my experience on how to start collecting herbs?

Well, calls with a proposal for cooperation come to me every day and more than once, but the saddest thing is that even with people with whom you agree to cooperate, out of 100 people, 30 will get to the point and 29 of them will decide in a month that this occupation is not for them. As a result, out of 100 people, only one likes this activity after he tried it. It turns out a lot of time and effort is wasted, do you need it?

By no means do I want to dissuade anyone from taking herbs, I just want to explain why this happens and reduce the number of your mistakes.

So the main reasons why for many the idea is unsuccessful. To do this, consider several different groups people and the reasons that led them to the idea of a business of collecting medicinal or tea herbs. I will call the groups in my own way, but I think it will be clear, maybe you will recognize yourself.

We moved out of the city and decided to open our own business

Urban - the most numerous and the most hopeless group, in my opinion, have lived in the city all their lives and suddenly moved out of town or simply bought a summer house, they think that their area, since it is 10 km from the city, is environmentally friendly, because they were told so when selling a plot or a house, and indeed in a new place is much greener than in the city! As a rule, thoughts about the ecological cleanliness of a new place of residence are just a delusion, there is no dispute outside the city cleaner than in the city, but it’s still not enough to collect herbs.

Okay, let's leave the environment alone, anyway, the presence of a 100m motorway will not stop anyone, because since we have already moved, we need to start exploring new activities! We go to the nearest clearing and start collecting, and it turns out it’s not just a truck and you can’t play on the phone, in general you need to work and not like in the office, namely to work, and then there are bedbugs, ticks and midges, I’m still silent about what else is needed know a lot and the head begins to look for a way out of the situation. Usually such a way out is the population of the nearest village, according to many people who have lived in the city in the village, people have nothing to do at all and they will gladly work for them for a penny. Accordingly, the workers are quickly and voila! Problem solved! The newly minted businessman sits relaxing at home, and the villagers work for him, showed a picture of a plant and ordered several bags of this to be brought by the evening, everything is like in a fairy tale, but the fairy tale ends in a few days, when it comes time to sell these herbs, then it will start to become clear what the workers had they said to bring parsnip grass, but they brought dill and you can’t fault it because they look alike in the picture! Chicory was wrapped up at the reception due to dirt, as it was easier for workers to pick it up on the side of the road, there is more of it! And Ivan-chai was collected for only 1,000 rubles in a week, since it was collected where there was almost none, and the advance payment received had to be urgently spent on drink and there was no time left for Ivan-chai, because quickly finding a hard-working worker in the village is no easier than in the city, everyone is busy with their own business, and in search of hacks, as a rule, people who do not like to work, but like to drink.

In general, you can talk endlessly about this category, the meaning will be the same: before you start leading, first do it yourself, there are enough leaders in our country who are “not in the know about what is happening” without you, you need to work here first of all yourself - this is the main difference between the village from the city.

Since ancient times, people have been treated with herbs. Medicinal plants were collected in autumn and summer, and used all year round. Even in the 21st century, despite the abundance of medicines, herbal medicine remains a popular method of treatment and maintenance of health. This information should be taken into service by novice businessmen. After all, this type of entrepreneurial activity is year-round and profitable. The article will tell you how to make money on medicinal plants. He will also tell you how to properly collect and prepare herbs for sale and where to sell them in the future.

A farmer can grow everything

Let's imagine a farmer who has his own plot, as a rule, he grew potatoes and corn all his life, but suddenly he got bored or he saw some interesting proposal for taking herbs, for example, our price list) and decided to plant fireweed on the entire plot, let's say the farmer took into account that fireweed grows poorly on dry soils and his site is suitable for him, and even took into account that since fireweed will grow well on his site, then he will uproot it for more than one year. I planted, looked again at our admission price and imagined mountains of gold. Disappointment will come to him when he sees a limit of 30 kg, which is set at the time of admission, and they can even wrap it, since it is almost impossible to collect and dry grass on an industrial scale with high quality, with the exception of several types and the market is crowded with them.

What do I want to say? Collecting herbs on an industrial scale and qualitatively incompatible words in one sentence, because you are collecting for people! Well, if you forget about quality (after all, this is a "business", and the well-known principle of Russian business, unfortunately, is already becoming an integral part of our Motherland), then before planting, I highly recommend finding an office in advance that will buy everything from you, usually these are pharmaceutical enterprises that produce dietary supplements or cosmetics. We are not here to help you.

Searching for a job

The third group of people who from time to time are tired of unscrupulous employers, shifts or just want to change their activity and start collecting plants. As a rule, everyone has little idea that this is not easy, that you must follow the rules of collection and hygiene, that before you collect you still need to find, and so on. The problem is that people are looking for any job, no one thinks about whether they like it or not, and as a rule, after a few days or weeks they find another job and forget about herbalism.

Looking for a job is good! But try to look for all the same work to your liking, I understand perfectly well that in our time it’s just difficult to find a job, not only to your liking, but still try, I can’t give other advice, because I just don’t know what to advise.

Family business

The rarest group is when the whole family or an individual member decided to go into the herb collection business, and in this case, successful starts maximum amount, as a rule, these are people who live in nature and are no longer familiar with the profession by hearsay. But even here there are very neglected cases, for example, the family is engaged in the collection and sale of herbs and everything is fine, but they are not familiar with hygiene and cleanliness, and the fact that it is unacceptable to dry herbs from goats in a barn, if at all this barn is not combined with housing. I once had such a dialogue with a herbalist, a simple Russian woman of about 45 years old, who has been harvesting medicinal plants for many years:
Me: How can you sell such herbs?
Herbalist: what is it?
Me: but you can see with the naked eye that they are dirty.
Herbalist: well, if you don't like it, you can not buy it, I don't forcefully offer it to anyone, after all.
Me: what if someone gets poisoned?
Herbalist: well, my goats eat them and nothing is done to them, and in general, everything fresh that is not for sale is always eaten by goats.
Me: how many goats have died in the last 10 years?
Herbalist: well, a couple somewhere.
Me: why do you know?
Herbalist: Yes, who knows, they probably got drunk.

It was useless to continue further dialogue.

Instead of total

No matter who you are and what motivates you to learn how to make money with herbalism, remember one thing for this you need a love of cleanliness and hard work, a strong desire to learn. This decision should not be spontaneous, first try to prepare a couple of tea herbs for a year for yourself and your family, and then decide whether you like it or not. And most importantly, conscience!

Well, the second part of the article is for those who have firmly decided to start harvesting herbs.

How to make money on herbs and certain plants?

Phytotherapy is becoming more popular every year. This is explained by the following: trust in most medicines is falling, almost all medicines are expensive, herbs were treated in ancient times, there is trust in them, plants can be used for beauty and youth. However, not everyone understands herbs and knows how to properly prepare them for use. Therefore, the collection, preparation and sale of medicinal plants is good type business. In order to start doing this entrepreneurial activity would need:

To study all types of plants that grow in the surrounding areas. To do this, you need to be well versed in herbs and poisonous plants. After all, the health, and sometimes the life of people, depends on it.

The study of all poisonous plants, as well as those listed in the Red Book.

Permission to lease the plot where they grow medicinal plants.

Preparation of relevant documentation for the sale of herbs.

Purchase of special equipment.

It is worth saying that it is difficult to obtain permission to collect herbs in a certain area. I personally have not seen any collector with such permission and everyone just collects herbs in the wild.

Documents required for work

To obtain a license for the collection and processing of medicinal plants, you need to obtain a license. To get it you need to collect and present a list of documents. This list includes:

List of medicines to be sold;

Charter and memorandum of association;

Protocol on the founding of the enterprise;

A document confirming registration with the tax office;

Conclusion of the sanitary-epidemiological station.

Preparing everyone required documents will cost 2500 rubles. The cost of a license (declaration of conformity) is about 20,000 rubles. It should be said that you can get it in your hands only after a few months. This is if you do everything yourself.

Equipment for processing and drying plants

In the business of collecting, processing and selling plants, you can do without staff. However, it will not work without special equipment. You will need the following equipment:

Vibrating sieve (not necessary if only manual collection is carried out);

Grind (you can not buy if you deal with whole herbs);

Dryer (there are plants that cannot be dried naturally);

Packaging equipment (well, or at least packaging and labels).

It is also worth thinking about inviting such specialists as a pharmacist and phytotherapeutist to the production. They will advise clients and suggest what herbs to collect.

Rules for the collection and preparation of medicinal plants

Before you start collecting and selling plants, you need to consider certain rules.

The first rule: you need to collect herbs away from highways and industrial facilities.

Second: best time to collect the morning after the dew has gone.

Third: it is necessary to dry herbs in the shade.

Fourth rule: if the plants are not frozen, they cannot be stored in bags.

Fifth: some plants lose soy healing properties freezing and drying at temperatures above 40 degrees.

Sixth: For each plant there is a certain collection time, those. when it is at its most useful, it is usually flowering time for grasses and autumn spring for roots, but there are exceptions everywhere. If you search a little on our website, you can find a calendar for collecting herbs for each month with pictures.

It is also worth remembering about dosages and that some types cannot be mixed together.

Where can plants be sold?

In addition to private individuals, medicinal plants can be left in some industrial locations. For example: pharmacies, shops, herbal medicine shops, saunas, for the production of brooms. You can also sell herbs to healers or open your own outlet sales. Various phyto-firms are considered a good marketing option. You can rent, but we are very picky). As well as various cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies. Indeed, at the present time, many cosmetics are prepared on a natural basis: plants and other ingredients. However, there are more often needed large quantities a variety of herbs. And the prices there are not interesting at all.

Sale of medicinal plants topical and profitable business in the 21st century. Despite the huge availability of pharmacies and bio-supplements, people trust herbal medicine. Yes, and for them this method of treatment is cheaper, and the quality is similar.

I hope I have laid out everything in detail, as far as possible, of course, it is difficult to indicate all the pitfalls in one article, but the main harm is there.

All of the above is a fiction and invention of your computer, if you recognized yourself in the article, it seemed to you, drink tea and calm down!)

Even the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians and other peoples used medicinal plants to treat diseases. We owe to the Egyptians the introduction of aloe, poppy, mint and other plants into medicine. Prominent doctors wrote about the meaning and benefits of medicinal plants Ancient Greece Hippocrates (he described about 200 plants), Dioscorides (there are about 500 plants in his herbalist), as well as the Tajik doctor Avicenna (900 medicinal plants recommended by him for medicinal purposes). AT traditional medicine the preparation of medicinal plants was given a certain ritual, which was followed by the plant collector. Before the start of the collection, he had to be physically and spiritually cleansed, that is, take a steam bath and dress cleanly, and traditional healers advised him to bypass unclean places, a burnt forest or a cemetery when collecting medicinal herbs.

It was considered unacceptable to collect plants during solar and lunar eclipses, as they could turn into poison. It is not recommended to collect during rain and thunderstorms. The collection of medicinal herbs was timed to coincide with various religious holidays (before the Trinity, on Spassus, on Simon the Zealot, etc.).

In Europe and especially America, herbal treatment is very popular (up to 55% of Americans are treated with herbs), in Russia for last years there has also been an increase in those wishing to be treated with herbs. In pharmacies, up to 30% of the assortment is made up of medicinal herbs and their share is growing.

Plan. The annual need of factories for medicinal raw materials is growing, they need up to 50 thousand tons, and only about 18 thousand tons of raw materials are procured. Collection and preparation of medicinal herbs it does not require special expenses for any equipment at all, and the income can bring not bad.

Try to organize such a business. For example, there is a higher demand for raw materials such as coltsfoot, string, St. John's wort, oregano, plantain, birch buds, lime blossom, elecampane, tansy, eleutherococcus, mountain ash, hawthorn, and dog rose. In the pharmaceutical industry, every year it is necessary to harvest fresh material, such as belladonna leaves, fern leaves, foxglove flax seeds, henbane, dope, aconite hemlock tubers, rhizome and hop cones. These raw materials account for almost half of the total purchases of medicinal material.

Each medicinal plant has its own best time and method of collection. In some plants, leaves are harvested, in others, flowers, roots, or the entire plant can be harvested.

The underground parts of the plant (roots, rhizomes, bulbs) are usually harvested in autumn or in early spring, because at this time they are most massive. After the raw material has been dug up, it must be cleaned from the ground by brushing it off well, then it is advisable to rinse with running water as soon as possible, finely chop and dry.

The aerial parts (grass, leaves, flowers) are harvested during the period when the buds are tied and at the beginning of the flowering of the plant, with the exception of the "coltsfoot" and some more, which are harvested after flowering. At this time contains the largest amount of biologically active substances in the greenery of medicinal plants. herbaceous plants cut with a sickle or garden knife. It is said that the collection of grass made in the morning is the most effective, because. this herb has much more healing power.

From trees, shrubs, leaves are often harvested all summer, but young leaves are preferable. Inflorescences and flowers are harvested at the beginning of flowering. Seeds and fruits should be harvested when they are fully ripe. Bark from branches and trunks must be harvested in spring period during the intense movement of the juices, they are then easily separated, with the best time being 16-18 hours. Buds are harvested in early spring before blooming. AT winter period you can cut buds from pine and birch.

You can work as a picker and donate dried raw materials to larger harvesters, or you can become a harvester and accept plants from pickers, and then, after drying, donate them directly to pharmacological factories.

If you buy plants from pickers, it is better that they are in their raw form, and carefully inspect the raw materials (sometimes they report something for weight). If you take it in dried form, you need to somehow control the drying, since the quality of the medicinal material will depend on it. Almost any medicinal herb should not be dried under open sun, because it reduces the concentration useful substances. So that the plant does not have time to turn brown, become covered with mold, it must be dried as quickly as possible. Large parts of raw materials are crushed, cut into pieces.

It is best to dry the material in an attic equipped with an iron or shingle roof, sheds can be adapted specifically for this and, finally, in special dryers. During drying, most of the moisture evaporates from the grass, which means that it will also lose weight. Here is an approximate alignment: grass will lose 70%, flowers - 75%, bark - 45%, roots - 65%, leaves will weigh 80% less.

With large volumes of collected plants, it is necessary to purchase a special drying cabinet, or even better, build a floor dryer. For it, an ordinary barn is used, in which a mesh pallet is installed. Under the pallet is served hot air, heater (you can use a heat generator TAU-0.75 A or similar). The grass is laid out on a pallet with a layer of 35 cm. Up to 10 tons of raw materials can be dried in this way.

With natural drying, the raw material dries for several days. Drying is considered complete if the leaves, flowers are rubbed between the fingers, the stems and roots break easily, the berries crumble when squeezed. Dry raw materials must be stored in dry, well-ventilated rooms, accessible to frequent inspection, for this reason, a room in a living room that is not heated can become a good warehouse. Herbs containing many aromatic essential oils should be kept away from other raw materials. poisonous plants must be stored in a separate room so that there is no danger of mixing or confusing them.

The annual need for raw materials of plant origin (in tons): Eleutherococcus root - 20, chamomile flowers - 10, rose hips - 10, bearberry and lingonberry leaves - about 5 tons each, valerian rhizome - 6, St. John's wort - 2, etc.

The factory cooperates only with large manufacturers. Prices for raw materials, depending on demand, change annually. Everywhere the purchase prices for raw materials are different, in Moscow they are somewhat higher.

It should be borne in mind that when dried, the grass becomes ten times lighter, and the roots about four times lighter. The quality of raw materials must comply with the GF, GOST, FS, VFS.

Recommendations. You can start harvesting herbs without a specially equipped dryer, get everything you need when you save up enough money. Try to study the special literature on medicinal plants, you can try to form a staff of pickers, and you need to train them.

In the future, you can sow the grass yourself somewhere in the apiary (all medicinal plants are very good honey plants), and then produce - drying, packaging and sale.