Adhitya Herbal Estate and ‘Wedha-Gama’

Gunawadana Osu Thuru Wadula; Ayurvedic herbal garden and the rare plant breeding/preservation centre

Introduction

Dr S.S. Gunawardhana provides only the best quality medicine for his patients, which assure their speedy and healthy recovery. Majority of his medicines are freshly prepared using rare and expensive medicinal plants and herbs. However, due to lack of raw materials it has been a great challenge for him to maintain the production of drugs to keep up with the demand. Most of the raw materials are either bought from the local suppliers or imported from India, a process which is costly and time consuming.
In order to overcome this hurdle Dr. Gunawardhana has established an herbal garden named “Gunawadana Osu Thuru Wadula” in a property belongs to him in Oyamaduwa area in the north central province. This project was inaugurated by former President Hon. Mahinda Rajapakse’s wife Mrs. Shiranthi Rajapakse. A number of other Honourable Ministers of the former parliament and local dignitaries lead by former Minister of Indigenous Medicine Hon. Salinda Dissanayake also actively participated at the inaugural ceremony by planting valuable medicinal plants. As Dr. Gunawardhana is planning to expand his practice in the near future current herbal garden is under preparation to grow enough herbal plants required to produce the medicine for the increasing demand.

As the region boasts of a tremendous diversity of plant and animal life, the forests are an important source of herbal medicine for the local communities.Our indigenous system of medicine and Ayurveda thrive on naturally occurring floral diversity, collectively referred to as medicinal plants. Therefore the land is well suited for obtaining and growing the
rare and important medicinal plants native to the area. These plants will be duly preserved and grown in mass scale using modern agricultural and bio technological methods for obtaining the raw material and distribution among the interested parties. This will provide a constant supply of raw material to produce enough medicine to treat more patients at Dr. Gunawardhana’s Ayurvedic medical centre and at the up-coming Ayurvedic hospital.

Main objectives

• Conservation of medicinal plants and the other important plants native to the area.
• Popularization of the use of local medicinal plants and Ayurvedic and indigenous medicine.
• Establishment of a sustainable medicinal plants resource base and dissemination of information and material to interested parties to cut down the import costs.
• Creation of job opportunities for the local community to improve their quality of life.

Sub objectives

• Development of the techniques/ protocols for propagation of rare medicinal plants.
• Development of a gene-pool of indigenous and exotic plant species.
• Introduction of organic farming of herbs, fruits and vegetables to the area.
• Provision of access to school and university students for learning purposes.