Plant Development Department

The Department was established in the 1980’s but was re-named Plant Development in September 1998. The Department has a nursery of medicinal plants, five arboreta located in different parts of the Eastern Region, and a herbarium that holds about 1000 voucher specimens of medicinal plants. Mr. Isaac Ampaw is the Head of Department.

• The raising of medicinal plant seedlings
• The cultivation of medicinal plants in plantations
• Keeping of herbarium records
• Search and sourcing of medicinal plants
• Plant raw material inspection and authetication

• Sustainability of medicinal plant species
  
Germplasm collection, seedling raising and cultivation of medicinal plant species in the Centre's nursery, and the Centre's three plantations; namely, Ayikuma, Begoro and Mampong.
• Ayikuma plantation
  
A total of 2,500 seedlings of Khaya senegalensis, 230 of Kigelia Africana, 400 of Clausena anisata and 300 of Cassia sieberiana were raised. A routine maintenance of the already existing plant species of Balanites aegyptica, Clausena anisata and Khaya senegalensis covering an area of forty (40) - acres was maintained.
• Begoro plantation
  
The tree stands occupying the plantation are as follows: Khaya senegalensis, Monodora myristica, Tetraplura tetraptera, Treculia africana and Xylopia aethiopica, which have all grown to maturity, and ready for harvesting. Poor rainfall patterns and high-ranging bushfires hampered the cultivation of additional tree species.
• Mamfe plantation
  
The Department continues to attend to this plantation without further expansion. Maintenance of the cultivated Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, which has been the source of germplasm and collection of its raw materials for research activities, is on going.
• New nursery
  
A new nursery for the raising of medicinal plant species for the expansion of the Centre's plantations and retailing to out-growers has partially been constructed.