Sami Labs expands to Pune

Sami Labs, Bangalore-based transnational health-science company, is expanding into Maharashtra, with Pune as its headquarters. This will be for carrying out herbal cultivation.

According to Muhammed Majeed, chairman and managing director, Sami Labs, the company plans to replicate in Maharashtra what it did in Tamil Nadu.

For the past seven years, the company has been into herbal cultivation involving farmers of Tamil Nadu covering 10,000 acres and involving 5,000 farmers directly with herbal cultivation, he added.

In the last financial year, Sami Labs invested close to Rs 10 crore in Salem and adjoining districts of Tamil Nadu for cultivation.

This financial year, Sami Labs is expanding the cultivation to 30,000 acres and covering regions in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

The investment for cultivation will be to the tune of Rs 50-60 crore, said Majeed.

Sami Labs is primarily into cultivating Coleus forskohlii, a wild plant with medicinal properties and its associate in US, Sabinsa Corporation discovered that Coleus forskohlii (ban tulsi in Hindi) when consumed broke down fat without affecting other tissues.

"Thus can be used as a good weight management product. In 1998, Sami Labs were granted a US patent for the discovery," said Majeed.

Sami Labs with sales of Rs 259 crore has a strong presence in United States, Japan, Australia, South Africa and China.