Farm Diversification

Stearidonic acid has good anti-inflammatory effects and valuable uses in skin care, in particular for the treatment of eczema and sunburn.  Activity as an anti-wrinkle preparation has also been demonstrated. 

Echium can be widely grown and has been successfully grown in trials in Scotland over a number of years.  The crop is spring sown to produce a plant population of around 100 plants/m2.  Nitrogen application is approximately 75 kg/ha, like borage, with maintenance applications of P and K.  Use of stale seedbeds may offer a useful option for weed control, with few herbicides are approved.  Few inputs for pest and disease control are expected.  
A feature of the crop is that it has an indeterminate growth habit and flowers for an extended period.  Pre harvest treatment is required and timing has to be carefully selected to maximize seed setting and minimize seed loss.  As it ripens, the seed changes from green to black to dark grey.  Swathing should occur when one third of the seeds are green, one third black and one third dark grey, and the crop should be combined when all the seeds have turned dark grey.  Seed loss is much less of an issue than for borage, but yields are low at 200 – 300 kg/ha.

The high value of Echium, at approximately £3,500/t, and low input costs help to  balance its low yield.

As with Borage, small scale crushing would be possible, but would not appear to be economically attractive due poor efficiency in extraction of the valuable oil. 

The presence of anti-nutritive alkaloids in Echium would limits its use in animal feed.