What Are the Prospects for Cultivating Bupleurum? A Quick Guide to the Latest Market Conditions
Bupleurum is a perennial herb in the Apiaceae family and a major traditional Chinese medicinal material in China. It is mostly supplied to the market as wild-harvested product, mainly produced in Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Anhui, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hubei, Inner Mongolia and other places. After entering the 21st century, because wild product has been harvested on a large scale year after year, output has shown a downward trend year by year, while the output of cultivated product is very small, and the market gap has been widening year by year. Let us take a look below at the cultivation prospects and cultivation benefits of Bupleurum!
Cultivation Prospects of Bupleurum
The national output of wild Bupleurum has already trended toward exhaustion, while the scale of artificial cultivation is very small, output is very low, and market supply is deteriorating. After entering the 21st century, many large pharmaceutical groups (factories) in China have used Bupleurum to develop nearly a thousand new drugs, special drugs and Chinese patent medicines, and the Bupleurum they require has increased year by year. The total amount of Bupleurum exported from China to more than 120 countries and regions increases at a rate of 15% each year, and the markets of Hong Kong, China, Macao, China and Taiwan, China have also sought goods from the mainland year after year, in considerable quantities.
China's scattered medicinal material markets, medicinal material companies, pharmacies, herbal decoction piece companies, traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine hospitals, clinics and others are also increasing their demand for Bupleurum day by day. The Bupleurum market contains business opportunities, huge potential and broad prospects, and both future output and prices have considerable room to rise. Bupleurum has already attracted widespread attention from pharmaceutical factories, pharmaceutical enterprises, pharmaceutical traders and medical units. Therefore, developing Bupleurum production is extremely urgent. Cultivating Bupleurum is a good variety for adjusting the structure of rural agricultural planting and for farmers to escape poverty, become prosperous and move toward a relatively comfortable life. All localities should be market-oriented and develop Bupleurum cultivation according to local conditions. “Things are precious when they are rare.” Because the supply gap for Bupleurum has widened year after year, the contradiction between supply and demand has become increasingly acute, driving Bupleurum prices up year after year.
Cultivation Benefits of Bupleurum
When Bupleurum seedlings grow to the second year, 50 kg of seeds can be harvested per mu, increasing to 100 kg by the third year. At a market selling price of 60 yuan per kg, this can bring in 9,000 yuan. In the third year, 100 kg of roots (dry goods) can be dug per mu. At a market selling price of 85 yuan per kg, this can bring in 8,500 yuan. The total income per mu from the above two items, seeds and roots, is 17,500 yuan. Over 3 years, the various cost expenses per mu of land are 300 yuan for land transfer, 150 yuan for Bupleurum seeds (2.5 kg per mu, 60 yuan per kg), 100 yuan for herbicide, and 1,950 yuan for labor and other costs, for a total expense of 2,500 yuan. The average net income per mu is 15,000 yuan, and the average annual net profit is 5,000 yuan. Compared with growing other crops, this increases income by 4,500 yuan per mu per year.
Cultivation Requirements for Bupleurum
1. Bupleurum prefers warm and humid climatic conditions and has strong adaptability, with tolerance to drought and fear of waterlogging. Therefore, when planting, sunny, gentle farmland should be selected for cultivation. The soil should preferably be well-drained sandy loam and humus soil with a deep soil layer. The soil pH should preferably be 6 to 7. The previous crop should preferably be a grass-family plant, and continuous cropping should be avoided.
2. For Bupleurum cultivation, land preparation and fertilization follow conventional medicinal material cultivation methods.
3. For Bupleurum cultivation, attention should be paid to seed selection and seed treatment. Plump, mature seeds (double achenes) should be collected from plants that are more than 2 years old. Bupleurum seeds have a short lifespan and a low germination rate. Old seeds more than 1 year old are not easy to germinate and must not be used. Seed treatment should be carried out before sowing. Seeds can be soaked in gibberellin 100 mg/kg for 2 hours, then removed and dried for later use. The sowing method should suit local conditions, using direct seeding or seedling raising and transplanting, and either spring sowing or autumn sowing is acceptable. The seeding rate per mu is 2.5-3 kg.
4. For Bupleurum cultivation, loosening the soil and weeding, thinning seedlings, final thinning, topdressing, watering, pinching off growing tips and removing buds, as well as pest and disease control, harvesting and processing, are all carried out according to conventional medicinal material field management methods.