Aromatic and medicinal plants play a significant role in the social, medical,
and spiritual existences of India's rural community. The livelihoods of the rural
population benefited greatly from medicinal plants. Medicinal and aromatic plants
(MAPs) are essential components of the world's ecological heritage, environment, and
biodiversity. From ancient times, medicinal and aromatic plants have been used to treat
a wide range of ailments in conventional medical systems. They are also used as
sources of natural dye, fat, essential oil, bio-pesticide, resin, protein, vitamin,
condiment, spice, timber, fiber, and other useful materials, as well as for therapeutic,
fragrance, and flavoring products in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
Despite the fact that agriculture has long been the foundation of India's economy, our
observation over the last 50 years with protected cultivation suggests a link between
agricultural practices and economic well-being. Controlled environment cultivation
provides an effective way to manage medicinal and aromatic plants where biosynthesis
of bioactive compounds is the determining factor of crude drug or raw material for
which protected cultivation and agro-input management is a decisive factor. Hence, the
current book chapter illustrates the importance of a controlled environment for the
cultivation of selected industrially important medicinal and aromatic plants in order to
have a sustainable future.
Keywords: Agrotechnology, Aromatic plants, Cultivation practices, Economy, Industry, Medicinal plants, Protected cultivation, Propagation, Sustainability.
