Potential dried flowers and floral craft items:
Flowers are associated with mankind from the dawn of civilization and in the modern era these have become an integral part of human life. Love for flowers is a natural instinct. The sight of growing flowers in all their grandeur makes one to wish for the season to continue and never end, but this is not possible. The answer for it could be by producing ever-lasting flowers, which are now becoming a favorite with the adventurous flower lovers across the globe. The beauty and fresh look of cut flowers can be retained only for few days eve. The beauty and fresh look of cut flowers can be retained only for few days even by using the best techniques of post-harvest technology but the charm of dried flowers and foliage can be maintained from a few months to years with lesser cost if protected from the damage of high humidity.
Rich bio-diversity
The native and naturalized Indian flora comprises of a wide variety of ornamental trees, shrubs climbers, herbaceous plants, fleshy fungi, lichens, mosses and sellaginellas, etc. Many of these ornamental plants with their magnificent array of flowers, foliage, fruits, cones seeds, roots stems, shoots/twigs, bark, lichens and fleshy fungi have fascinated the tourists, naturalists, environmentalists and amateur gardeners. These plants can not be retained as cut flower or cut foliage for longer duration and the masses residing in the metropolitan and other large cities who cannot visit countryside or Himalayan region remain deprived of the beauty of these plants. The charms and beauty of these plants, however, can be maintained for months to years by employing various techniques of dehydration. In addition to native and naturalized- plants number of cultivated plants especially flowering annuals Viz., Amaranthus, button daisy, celosia, dahlia, gompherina, marigold, pansy, paper flower, salvia, straw flower, statice, bells of Ireland, etc. and other leading flowers like carnation, chrysanthemum, rose and lotus can be grown for dehydration.
Dehydration techniques
For drying of flowers and foliage number of dehydration techniques are practiced which vary according to the suitability of any species and the purpose for which dehydrated material is required. These methods are air-drying, sun drying, solar dryer, hot air oven drying, microwave drying, freeze drying and vacuum drying etc. The flowers can be dried ware or with embedding in desiccants. The important desiccants are silica gel (white and blue), borax acid, white river sand, alum powder, corn powder, saw dust, etc. The flowers and foliage are also press dried in herbarium press, which are required to be changed daily in news paper or bottling paper initially for few days to soak the moisture quickly.
The most ideal temperature for flower drying in hot air oven is 45º C - 65º C, Which is given for few hours to three days depending upon the flowers species. In microwave oven plants are normally dried for 2-5 minutes and the material is kept at room temperature for 4-5 hours as setting time. In microwave oven glass or plastic containers are used whereas in hot air oven aluminium containers are most ideal.
Floral Craft Items
The dried flowers, foliage, fruits cones seeds, roots bark, stem/twigs are used for making various value added floral crafts viz., sweet smelling pot-porris, collages, flower pitchers, flower balls, greeting cards, pomanders, wall sceneries, festive decorations, bouquets and wreaths.
Export potential
After liberalization of EXIM policy, the export of flower products has sharply increased from Rs. 14.5 crores in 1991-92 to Rs. 116.7 crores during 1999-2000.
The contribution of dried flowers and plants is about 60-70 percent and at present we are exporting over ten thousand ton of dried flowers to USA, UK, Japan Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore and other European countries.
Although, dry flower production is a small component of Indian floriculture industry, but the demand of Indian dried flowers and plants has sharply increased world over in a short span some what on the expense of fresh flowers.
We are exporting over ten million pieces of lotus pods per month in addition to dried flowers of camellia, dahlia, bell cups, marigold, Jute flowers, wood roses, wild lilies, paper flower and naturally dries plant parts of Himalayan flora.
In-spite of rich bio-diversity and cheap labour in India, no organized production of dehydrated flowers and floral crafts has been undertaken. This business is confined to about 50 private companies operating from kolkata (West Bengal), Tuticorin (Tamil nadu) and Mumbai, close to sea ports as the material being bulky is usually shipped through sea routes. Ramesh flowers Limited at Tuticorin has about 50 % percent share of the total export from our country.
At present the work is in progress under ICRA's first ever ad hoc research project on dry flowers at Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur to identify potential dried ornamental plants in outer Himalayan region and to standardize their dehydration technology for making best use of Himalayan bio-diversity.
This will help in fulfilling the increasing demand for dry flower products in our country and world-over. Therefore, by developing and selling these products living standard of poor hill people is likely to improve.
Summary
Dried flowers being cheap and everlasting are fast becoming a favorite among the adventurous flower lovers across the globe some what on the expense of fresh flowers.
Liberalization of EXIM policy in India has paved the way for increased export of floricultural products and the contribution of dried flowers is enormous. The organized research and production of dry flowers in the country by making use of rich bio-diversity and cheap labour would further trigger the growth of floriculture industry.
Source: Science Tech Entrepreneur, Oct. 2003. |
