Assessment of the energy flow and environmental impacts of greenhouse production of medicinal plants with life cycle assessment approach- Case study of Aloe vera

In this study the production of greenhouse Aloe vera leaves in Khorasan Razavi province was evaluated and analyzed in terms of energy consumption pattern and environmental consequences due to the use of agricultural inputs. According to the results, total energy consumption in production of Aloe vera leaves was evaluated as 102825.19 MJ ton-1. The results of energy analysis showed that the heat supply and greenhouse structures were consumed more than 90 percent of total energy consumption. Based on the results of life cycle assessment, the total amount of environmental impacts for greenhouse production of one ton of Aloe vera leaves was determined as 2331.26 pPt ton-1, in which the contributions of the input production outside the greenhouse and the input consumption inside the greenhouse were 1744.63 and 586.63 pPt ton-1, respectively. The results showed that the impact categories of human toxicity and marine aquatic ecotoxicity with environmental impacts of 621.043 and 608.538 pPt ton-1, respectively, had the highest share in total environmental impact.