A Novel Multistage Approach for Medicinal Plant Classification with Deep Learning Techniques

Accurate classification of medicinal plant images into high-level categories and specific sub-groups is essential for various applications, including agriculture, plant research, and conservation. This paper proposes a multi-stage deep learning approach to enhance the precision of medicinal plant image classification. In the first stage, known as Broad Classification, CNN and pre-trained models such as VGG16, ResNet50 and EfficientNetB0 are utilized to categorize images into high-level groups, including "Medicinal Plants," "Fruit-Related Plants," and "Flower-Related Plants." The model is fine-tuned using data augmentation techniques to ensure robust learning and generalization. In the second stage, referred to as Detailed Classification, separate models are trained for each high-level group to classify images into specific sub-groups within that category. The architecture of these models is adjusted to accommodate the unique number of classes in each sub-group. Each model undergoes training with optimized hyperparameters and is evaluated based on precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy. The proposed multi-stage method demonstrates the ability to handle both broad and fine-grained medicinal plant classifications effectively, showcasing an improvement in classification performance over traditional single-stage models. This approach highlights the potential for deep learning to contribute to more precise and practical medicinal plant image classification solutions.