Opinions

Potential to Grow Medicinal Herbs in the North

 
Calendula officinalis
Calendula officinalis
AI-generated with Kandinsky 3.1

Karelian scientists are looking into growing medicinal herbs in the north on what seems to be an industrial scale.

Traditionally, medicinal herbs are grown in the south of Russia. A consumer is likely to see a pack of herbs marked as Altay's Herbs or plants from any other steppe region where vegetation grows in abundance, even wild.

The hypothesis of the scientists from the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences is that the Republic can become a land for medicinal herbs farming. Among the reasons they cite is the fact that plants in the north store more essential oils than those which grow in the south.

There is, however, a nuance. Economically, it is not as beneficial to grow something in the Arctic. Most of the Russian Arctic belongs to a so-called 'zone of risky agriculture' (a Soviet term that remains in high use to this day).

In modern international terms, the soils of the North belong to hardiness zones 1-4, with most 'favourable' conditions for gardening being in Karelia and the Murmansk Region. Hence, adapting farming economically seems a primary concern for our researchers.

A map of growing hardiness zones. Russian Arctic zone is 1-4 from 13 zones in total.

The scientists experiment and apply different principles to medicinal herbs agriculture. Their recent research features joint growing of spearmint, lemon balm, garden strawberry and calendula officinalis in different combinations. The key takeaways from the study is some combinations of plants may be more effective than others:

  • Calendula, when grown together with other cultures, suppresses lemon balm, spearmint and strawberry.
  • Surprisingly, such a common culture as dill may stimulate the growth of spearmint and lemon balm.
  • Joint growing increases the resilience of plants and suppresses weeds.

The research also follows how the compacted crops affect photosynthesis processes:

  • The method reduces the intensity of transpiration. This way, the water loss in a plant is decreased.
  • The stomatal conductance is also reduced, in other words, the uptake of CO2 is less.
  • Some plants, such as strawberry, may increase the photosynthesis activity in other plants, while spearmint and lemon balm increase their activity when grown alone.

Interestingly, the research in this field suggests some principles of permaculture for industrial use. Such are, for example, using perennial cultures and compacted crops. In the Western tradition, where this term first appeared, the topic is more popular among individuals and is usually opposed to farming industries. Scientists from the Karelian Research Centre have also estimated the potential of perennial onions, concluding that it's a valuable medicinal culture, rich with nutrients.

Umbrellas of dill
Dill umbrellas
AI-generated with Kandinsky 3.1

Many studies in Russia are devoted to agriculture in the North. In 2023, news came about the potential of the Arctic becoming another Russia's zhitnitsa (sort of a very abundant granary or a territory rich with wheat), which proposed new technologies for northern agriculture. The research centre Agrotechnology of the Future has successfully experimented with some ideas for indoor growing, such as using plant sensors and automatically adjusting LED lights. 

As an example, the researchers suggest, it will be quite beneficial to grow small potatoes for seeds in the Arctic.

It's great that the main focus of the scientists is not limited to indoor hydroponics and vertical farming with mineral fertilisers, but also using organic stimuli like combining crops. Today's technological progress may actually allow achieving great agricultural results even on polar stations.

Let us hope that technologies and rational use of the environment will increase the agricultural role of the Arctic.

The Editorial Board of the Arctic Century

06.08.2024