Title: Report on Feasibility Assessment of Seabuckthorn (Hippophaesalicifolia. L.) product value addition and market linkages in Lachen and LachungValley in North Sikkim
KeyWords: Bhimnala,Yaksay, Faka, Sercho, Bitchu and Domang, Seabuckthorn, value addition
Year of Publication: 2021
ISSN No: NA
Author Name: Research & Extension Cell, Forest & Environment Department Government of Sikkim.
Details:
INTRODUCTION
Sea buckthorn (Hippophae salicifolia. L.) is a deciduous thorny high-altitude shrub of four-to-five-meter height belonging to family Elaeagnaceae, is a wind pollinated dioecious shrub. It is the hardy shrub which can withstand extreme temperature up to - 45°C and is considered to be drought tolerant and is considered to have extensive root system having ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. It is therefore reported to be an ideal plant for soil erosion control; wildlife habitat enhancement, land reclamation and farm stand protection to wind in temperate and alpine region. It grows naturally in temperate to alpine forest areas of Hindu Kush Himalayan region adjoining part of China, Mongolia, Russia, Northern Europe and Canada. All species of genus Hippophae are actually native to Eurasia.
In India, genus Hippophae comprises of Hippophae rhamnoides, H. salicifolia and H. tibetana, which grows naturally in high-altitude (2391-4300 masl) Himalayas (Raina et.al.,2011). H. rhamnoides has gained wide attention as a functional food with high pharmacological value, owing to the presence of >200 bioactive compounds (Suryakumar and Gupta 2011; Zielinska and Nowak 2017).The leaf extract is equally beneficial and has proven to have anti-dengue properties when evaluated in dengue virus Type 2 infected blood (Jain et al.,2014)
Sea buckthorn being a non-cultivated plant, exhibit higher variability even among the naturally growing population (Dolkar et al., 2017a). However, due to its high nutritional value and role in soil and water conservation, efforts have been made for large scale cultivation of Sea buckthorn in India (Stobdan et al., 2017). Several studies have highlighted its enormous health benefits, nutraceutical relevance and stress tolerance(Gupta and Deswal 2012); however, most of the literature are available only forH. rhamnoides but the remaining two species H. salicifolia and H. tibetana remain relatively unexplored and underutilized.