ZFHC Infrastructure
Aromatic garden:A garden for aromatic plants was established by ZFHC in nearly 0.5 acre land having different species of aromatic plants. ex. Jasminum spp., Ocimum spp., Cinemomum spp., Mentha spp., Santalum album, Pterospermum. etc.
Human Organ based herbal Garden: A herbal garden based on human organs has been established by ZFHC. It is divided into different blocks designed as per human-organ shape such as heart, liver, stomach, kidney, reproductive system, brain, nose, ear, eyes and lungs. The medicinal and aromatic plants which are considered beneficial to that particular organ are planted in that particular block.
Navgrah vatika: The ZFHC has established the garden called Navgraha Vatika. Nava means nine and Graha means planet. The nine plants planted in this garden represent the nine planets. The cosmic energy of the nine planets are believed to influence life on the earth and believed to control the prosperity and destiny of a person. Each plants representing a planet, if planted in a particular direction is believed to get the benefits of positive energy as they maintain the overall balance of energy in the universe.
Rashi vatika: The Rashi Vatika established is based on Rashi-Chakra. There are 12 Rashis and each Rashi is having their own plant. It is believed that each plant provide positive energy to person belongs to that particular Rashi. It is observed that if a person worshipped respective plants of his Rashi, It will generate a tremendous positive impact on him. Ex. Pterocarpus santalinus for Aries (Mesh), Mangifera indica for Virgo (Kanya), Acacia catechu for Scorpio (Vrishchik) etc.
Horticulture Garden: Horticulture garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set a site for the cultivation of different types of fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental crops to reflects naturalistic effect of total view and represent natural beauty. ZFHC has established horticulture garden in nearly 0.5 acre land having 24 different species of fruit crops. ex. Mango, Sapota, Lemon, Sweet lime, Guava etc.
Agro-shade net and Poly House: ZFHC has a agro-shade net house and polyhouse each of 400 sq. m. Agro-shade net house is used for multiplication of elite germplasm while polyhouse is used different R&D activities such as vegetative propagation through cuttings, germination study, etc.
Hydroponics System: Hydroponics is a subset of hydro-culture, in which the plants are grown without soil, by using mineral nutrient based media in aqueous solvents. ZFHC has installed two types of hydroponic system viz. Nutrient film hydroponics system for aerial produce and Dutch bucket hydroponics system for underground produce.
Primary Processing Yard: A primary processing yard of 2700 sq. m. is created at ZFHC for cleaning, sorting, washing, drying etc. of medicinal and aromatic plants produce.
Oil Extraction unit: The farmers are adopting cultivation of aromatic plants in large scale. Zandu Foundation for Health Care is also promoting the cultivation of aromatic plants under Biotech KISAN Hub project funded by Department of Biotechnology, GoI. The aromatic plants are rich in essential oil and to extract the oil, ZFHC has installed a essential oil extraction unit of 500 kg capacity.
Solar dryer system: ZFHC has established 3 solar dryers at Ambach. Each dryer has 12 trays and has a capacity of nearly 50 Kg. These dryer are useful for drying of raw material such as leaves, flowers, stem, root, root bark, stem bark etc.
Post-Harvest processing Unit: ZFHC has established a post-harvest processing centre having facilities like industrial dryer, pulverizer with cyclone, mixer grinder, mobile chipper, vacuum packing machine etc. This center will be utilized for the post-harvest processing and value addition of the herbal raw material produced by the farmers.
Laboratory: ZFHC has set up a small Tinkering Laboratory to carry out quality analysis of herbal raw material as per Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (API) standards. Equipment’s such as moisture analyzer, Clevenger apparatus, pH meter, TDS meter, Muffle furnace, Hot air oven, Microscope, Rotary Shekar, and Centrifuge etc. were installed at laboratory.
Library: The ZFHC has a library with large collection of books such as floras, Wealth of India, Indian Medicinal Plants and books on Ayurveda, Agriculture, Agro-techniques of medicinal plants, Horticulture etc. Besides this, ZFHC has subscription to different journals who published research papers on different aspects of medicinal and aromatic plants.
Herbarium: An herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens maintained for scientific purposes. Specimen are collected, mounted on rigid paper. ZFHC has set up a Herbarium comprises of over 294 species of medicinal plants and has total 430 Herbariums. Which is useful as standard chart for plant identification.
Vermicompost unit: ZFHC promotes organic farming of medicinal and aromatic plants and used FYM and vermicompost for its own farm use. For which ZFHC has set-up a vermicompost production unit having 16 vermi-beds with annual capacity of 16 MT.
Satellite nursery for High Altitude Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: ZFHC is running different Govt. funded projects on high altitudes medicinal and aromatic plants and has established a nursery at village- Ramni, Dist-Chamoli, Uttarakhand. It is situated at 2700 m asl. in which quality planting material of selected medicinal and aromatic plants is raised for commercial cultivation. Furthermore, different R&D activities such as QPM generation, germination trials on rare and endangered species, conservation etc. is carried out.
