Presentation on,

Production Technology of Safed Musli

By,
SHIVANAND M R
Jr. MSc. UHS11PGM143
 Introduction
• Peeled and dried tubers of chlorophytum
borivilianum (Chloros- Green, Phytum- Plant) ,
popularly known as Safed Musli, which belongs to
family liliaceae, is considered a wonder drug in
Indian systems of medicine due to its aphrodisiac
and natural sex tonic properties.
• Tubers are white, and hence it is called as safed
musli.
• Due to its therapeautic importance, is used in more
than 100 Ayurvedic preparations.
• The world demand for Safed musli root is over
50,000 tons and in India 2500 tons every year,
which is much higher than the present
production.
• The decreasing supply from the natural
sources and increased demand in national and
international markets and the resulting
increase in prices has prompted
domestication and cultivation.
• The roots of Safed musli fetches an attractive
market price, at present Rs. 900-1200/ kg of
dry roots.
 Origin
• Tropical and subtropical Africa are the
probable centre of origin of the genus, where
about 85% of the species are found.
• The origin of safed musli can be traced back
in the oldest mountain ranges of the Indian
continent, the Aravalis from where it spreads
to the near-by areas of the sub continent.
• Indian Subcontinent is the centre of origin.
 Vernacular Names

• Musali (Sanskrit)
• Safed Musli(Hindi)
• Tiravanticam (Tamil)
• Dravanti (Kannada)

Economic Part : Tubers

Chemical content: Saponins
 Distribution
• It is widely distributed in India but not in other
countries except Myanmar and China.
• In India, it is cultivated in parts of Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,
Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka
and is being grown on an area more than 400
hectares for its tuberous roots (Kothari and Singh,
2004).
• Presently, the roots fetch an attractive price, which
is decided by the size of the tubers and its physical
appearance.
 Major Chemical Constituents
• Carbohydrates - 42%,
• Protein 80 - 90%,
• Fibres 3 - 4%,
• Saponins 2 - 17% and
• Alkaloids 15 - 25%. (Bordia et al., 1995).
• Primarily Saponins and alkaloids impart medicinal
value.
 Uses of Safed Musli
1. As a principal ingredient in Ayurvedic, Unani and
Allopathy application
2. As an aphrodisiac agent and Vitalizer
3. As a general sex tonic
4. As a curative for pre-natal and post-natal problems in
women and useful for brain development in children.
5. As an effective safe alternative to Viagra
6. Acts as a restorative for immunity improvement
7. As a remedy for diabetes
8. As a curative for physical weakness and many
illness
9. As a remedy for arthritis
10. Used for increasing general body immunity
11. It has spermatogenic property and helpful in
curing impotency as they are rich in glucosides
 Botany
• The genus Chlorophytum includes about 300 species, which
are distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical
parts of the world.
• The somatic chromosome number is 2n = 16
• Thirteen species of Chlorophytum have been reported from
India (Shariff and Chennaveeraiah, 1972).
• Chlorophytum borivilianum produces the highest yield and
highest saponin content (Shariff and Chennaveeraiah,
1972).
• Other important indigenous species are :
C. arundinaceum,C. tuberosum, C. laxum, C. attenuatum, C.
malabaricum and C. breviscapum .
 Different Species of Chlorophytum and their
Distribution
Species Distribution

1. C. borivilianum Dangs Forests (Gujarat), Aravali hills

2. C. arundinaceum All districts of Chhota Nagpur, Vindhya, Satpura and Aravali

hills, parts of central India, Tarai region of North-East
Himalayas in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar

3. C. attenuatum Western Ghats, Southwards to Coimbatore, West Peninsula

4. C. axum Katki hills, Belgaum, Dharwar, North and South Kanara,

Deccan Peninsula in India.

5. C. tuberosum Parts of Konkan to Travancore in Kerala, Eastern Himalaya

6. C. breviscapum Bihar and West Bengal, Sikkim, Himalaya, Belgaum and

South Peninsula
• Chlorophytum borivilianum is a small perennial herb
with a full crown of radical leaves appearing over
the ground.
• Its root tubers are fleshy, fascicled and directly
originates from the stem disc devoid of any fibrous
structure.
• They are cylindrical and 5 -20 in number.
• It has 6 -13 radical leaves spirally imbricate at the
base, sessile in nature, linear or ovate with acute
apex and slightly narrowed at the base.
• The leaves spread horizontally, with smooth
surfaces, wavy margins and parallel venation.
Typical Safed Musli Plant
• Flowers of Chlorophytum are small, white,
bracteate, pedicillate, zygomorphic, usually
arranged in alternate clusters, each cluster
comprising of 3 flowers.
• The flower clusters are dense on the upper part of
the scape; bracts are linear, papery and purplish,
1.0 -10.5 cms long; pedicle whitish and 6 -10 mm
long.
• It bears green to yellow coloured fruit which is
almost equal in length and breadth.
• Seeds are endospermic, onion-like, black coloured
and angular in shape.
 Crop Improvement
• The work on collection and evaluation of
germplasm were taken at AICRP Indore, CIMAP,
Lucknow, Hyderabad and NRC on MAP at Boravi
(Singh and Chauhan, 2003).
• Tremendous variability in growth, yield attributing
characters and duration of crops were noted.
• Maximum variability was observed in tuber shape,
size and colour.
• Tubers having blunt tips have better post harvest
keeping quality than that of elongated tip.
• Kumar et al studied the influence of plant morphology on
root yield in Safed Musli to identify morphological marker
traits.
• Twenty seven germplasm lines were characterized for 4
morphological features (plant architecture, flowering
nature, leaf margin and canopy shape), 7 yield attributing
traits (canopy spread, leaf width, leaf length, number of
leaves/plant, number of roots/plant, root length and root
diameter) and root yield/plant.
• Genotypes with flowering ability showed significantly
higher mean values for canopy spread and leaf length that
are significantly correlated with root yield.
• So flowering nature can be utilized as morphological
marker for large-scale screening of germplasm lines for
yield in Safed Musli.
 Crop Production Technology
Soil :
• Since it is a tuber species, it needs a sandy loamy soil with
5.5-7.0 pH and rich in organic matter.
• Heavy black soil is not suitable for cultivation.
Climate :
• The vegetative growth and fleshy root development is
facilitated by warm and humid weather with sufficient
amount of moisture during the growing period.
• Areas receiving 50-150cm annual rainfall, may be
considered suitable for its cultivation.
 Land Preparation
 Land preparation takes almost 2-3 months: Deep
Ploughing, Tillering is must to give land a better
Pulverization and Dryness in the month of March
and April.
 At least twenty trollys of Cow dung manure should
be mixed in the month of April or May.
 Raised beds should be prepared in the end of
Month May.
 All the raised Beds should be well irrigated before
sowing the planting Material.
 IMPORTANCE OF RAISED BEDS

 Raised beds should prepared to facilitate

better drainage of excess water and healthy
growth of roots
 Size of these beds can be as per case and
fecility.
 Size of the bed should be 1.05m width and 45
cm height.
Two beds should divided by 45 cm furrows
 Varieties

• Selections viz., RC-2, RC-16, RC-36, RC-20, RC-23,

RC-37 and CT-l are found to be good in terms of
yield and Saponin content.
• These varieties have been collected and maintained
at RAU, Udaipur.
• The other varieties of Safed musli which are high
yielding, insect, disease and fungus resistant are
MDB -13 and MDB -14.
 Propagation
Safed musli is propagated through both seeds &
vegetative means i.e. fleshy root bearing shoot buds.
By Seeds:
 The seeds are black in colour and with angular edges. It take
12-16 days to sprout.
 The seeds should be sown in a very well prepared seed bed
in the first or second week of June.
 The seedlings can be transplanted in the field during the
next Kharif season only at 30x15 cm spacing because the
development of plants as well as roots by means of seeds in
the first year is not vigorous enough as compared the
vegetatively propagated plants.
By Vegetative Means:
 The sprouted seedlings should be collected from the
forest between 10 to 30 days after receipt of rains
and transplanted in the field or fleshy root bunches
should be taken out from the ground or storage place
in mid of May.
 The fleshy roots sprout from second week of May to
second week of June.
 The sprouted fleshy propagules should be planted in
the field in first or second week of June, followed by
irrigation.
 The practice of planting on top of the ridges of
15-20 cm height at a row distance of 30x15 cm is
found adequate for obtaining commercial yield.

 It is estimated that 400-500 kg of seed tubers or

nearly 30000-35000 fingers will be required for
planting one acre land.
 Micro propagation
• The micro propagation of safed musli, has been
achieved on Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium
supplemented with 22.2 µM benzyl adenine using
young shoot bases as explants.
• Shoots multiplied at a rate of four-fold every 3
weeks.
• All shoots rooted when transferred to MS medium
with 3/4-strength inorganic and organic
constituents and 9.8 µM Indole butyric acid and
67% of the micro propagated plants were
successfully established in pots.
• Biradar, et al., 2004 studied the in vitro
performance of different explants of safed musli
during 2004-05 at the tissue culture laboratory of
Horticulture Department, College of
Agriculture,UAS Dharwad.

• Results observed in the study indicated that both

stem disc and shoot base explants were relatively
more efficient in terms of survival percentage (80%
and 77.5%, respectively) compare to leaf base and
tuber explants.
Micro propagation of
Chlorophytum borivilianum in MS medium
Hardening of tissue culture raised plants
in shade house
 Manures and Fertilizers
Musli cultivation requires different kinds of
fertilizers like FYM, chemical fertilizers, green
manures and micro nutrients for better profit of the
crop.
Farm Yard Manure (FYM):
It is very essential as it enhances water holding
capacity and fertility of soil.
10 to 15t/acre
Green Manures:
It improves the fertility of the soil. The ideal sources
of green manure are Sesbania and Crotalaria.
• Kulmi, G. S. and Tyagi, S. K. Studied the response of safed
musli varieties to organic nutrition in vertisols of Malwa
Plateau of Madhya Pradesh.
• Results of two year study conducted during kharif seasons
of 2002-03 and 2003-04 reveal that safed musli variety JM-
405 grows well under organic nutrition as compared to
MCB-412.
• However, higher IBCR ratio was obtained from application
of Poultry Manure @ 5 t/ha combined either with the soil
application of Azotobacter or vesicular arbuscular
mycorrhizae or Trichoderma viride @ 10 kg/ha than
application of farmyard manure @ 40 t/ha.
Chemical Fertilizer :

 About 20 kg N, 40 kg P2O5 and 20 kg K2O per acre is

recommended.
Basal dose of fertilizer should be applied at the time
of planting.
After 45 days of planting second dose should be
applied.
• Chauhan et al., 2002. studied the influence of FYM
and NPK fertilizers on growth and yield of safed
musli production.
• Research revealed the application of FYM at 15 t/ha
produced yield that was at par with the combined
application of FYM 15 t/ha in combination NPK at
either rates.
• The results suggest that safed musli can be grown
organically without loss in productivity.
Micronutrients :

In case of zinc deficiency application of 10 kg

ZnS04 is ideal for its growth.
For a tuber species like Safed musli an application
of bone meal provides phosphorus and the necessary
micronutrients.
Nutritional Deficiencies :

• Iron deficiency leads to Chlorosis.

• Initially Chlorosis of young leaves followed by
gradual necrosis.

Control Measure:
Spray ferrous Sulphate once in 2 months
Spacing :
 Tubers are planted on raised beds at a spacing of 30 cm
between the rows and 25 cm between the plants. Also,
the spacing of 20 cmx20cm is suitable for its better
growth.
Irrigation :
 Safed Musli is cultivated during the rainy season, as it
needs a regular supply of water even after the stage of
fall of leaves.
 Irrigation may be done after 10 to 15 days interval.
 A good drainage system is required to avoid water-
logging and to enable effective moisture-retention by
the soil.
 Drip irrigation is ideal for cultivation of Musli.
Inter Cropping :

Musli can be cultivated as-an inter crop with

Mango, Teak, Neem, Amla and Sapota (Cliiku) etc.
It can also be intercropped with Papaya, Banana
and maize.
Weeding :
Regular weeding is necessary for proper and healthy
growth of the crop.
Two to three weeding-cum-hoeings are needed to
keep the soil porous and free of weedy growth.
A matured Safed Musli plant
• Kothari, S. K. and Reddy, P. S. were studied the
response of safed musli to methods of planting,
spacing, harvesting age and cropping system.
• Yields of safed musli was improved by raised bed
planting, compared to flat bed and ridge planting,
respectively.
• Plant spacing had significant influence on safed
musli yield. The maximum yield 995 kg ha-1 was
recorded with 30x22.5 cm spacing and was found to
be 20.9, 22.1 and 22.8% higher than 30x25, 30x27.5
and 30x30 cm, respectively.
• The results of time of harvest study indicate that
after the drying of foliage there has been increase
in tuber biomass. Crop harvested 33 weeks after
planting in January produced 1490 kg.

• Intercropping was found to be an important

agronomic practice that had the potential to
improve the highest gross and net returns and
benefit-cost ratio. Pigeon pea (early type) followed
by black gram were the ideal crops for intercropping
under semi arid tropics.
• Patel et al., studied the inter cropping in safed
musli, and reported that safed musli as sole crop
earned maximum profit.
• Among the five selected intercrops, safed musli-
senna intercrop combination registered maximum
net profit with 1:1.80 cost benefit ratio.
• Safed musli-bajra intercrop did not prove
beneficiary effect on safed musli.
• Thus intercrop and shade condition does not help
for the fasciculated root yield of safed musli.
Detopping :

It is one of the operation in cultivation of musli, the

sprouted tubers grown and flower.
The inflorescence arise from the base of the plant
should be removed to encourage the tuber bulking.
 Plant Protection
• Major pests : Leaf eating caterpillar and white grub
• Major diseases : Leaf blight and red spot
Control Measures :
1. To control leaf eating caterpillars, spray 0.2 per cent
metacid aqueous solution at fortnightly intervals.
2. White grub can be easily controlled by the application of
Aldrin @ 25 kg per hectare at the time of last ploughing
during land preparation.
3. Spray Bavistin solution @ 1 g/l at 25 days interval (2 times)
to control the diseases.
Rotting of roots during storage can be controlled by
treatment with Thiram and Captan at 4.0 grams per kg of
roots.
 Harvesting
• The crop matures in about three months after planting. At
maturity, the leaves become yellowish and ultimately dry up
from the collar part and fall down. Thus, the crop should be
harvested when leaves have dried which take place in the
month of September - October.
Post Leaf Fall :
• After the leaf fall, the tubers should continue to be in the
ground. They should not be plucked, as changes occur
internally in the tuber that will increase its value.
Digging :
• Each tuber is to be delicately lifted with the prescribed
implements, to obtain maximum quantity of the tuber and to
avoid any damage to the crown or disc of the tuber.
Harvesting should be carried out in the month of March/April.
Roots at the time of Harvesting:
Cleaning of Tuber :
• As the tuber is dug out from the soil, naturally it
contains a lot of mud. As such, the tuber has to be
cleaned properly before it is peeled
Peeling :
• After the separation of the material to be resown,
only tubers without a crown are to be peeled.
• Peeling helps the tuber dry easily. Peeling is no
specialized task. It can easily be done with a knife
without any loss of quality or quantity. A person can
peel up to 5 kg per day.
Drying :
• Once peeled, Musli should be dried of the moisture
content. It takes 7 days for Musli to dry.
Grading :
• The fully dried fingers of safed musli can be graded as
'A', 'B‘ and 'C' grades on the basis of its colour and size.
Packing :
• After drying, Musli must be packed in poly bags to
prevent entry of moisture.
Yield :
• On an average, 2000 kg of fleshy roots per hectare can
be obtained, which may yield up to 400-500 kg of dry
safed musli.
• Upadhyay, et al., studied the effect of drying
methods on quality parameters of safed musli root.
• The experiment consisted of 2 postharvest
techniques, i.e. peeling and unpeeling, and
subsequent 3 drying types, i.e. shade, solar and
cabinet drying at 40-45 0C.
• The shade drying was the best method for safed
musli roots.
• The unpeeled roots maintained better quality
parameters than the peeled roots.
• Raghu et al., studied the effect of pre-treatments
and drying methods on quality and saponin content
of safed musli tubers.
• The drying methods had no significant effects on
the recovery percentage.
• Hot air oven drying required a shorter duration (<48
h) than solar (48 h) and sun drying (64 h) for drying
of safed musli tubers.
• Tubers pre-treated with KMS (2%) for 45 minutes
and dried in a solar cabinet had the highest saponin
content (3.93%).
Dried roots of Safed musli
Storage of Planting Material :
• The harvested bunch of roots should be collected
with sand and heap in the shade.
• The heap is stirred at 3-4 days interval for next 8 to
12 days and make the harvested bunch free from
sand and mud by cleaning with clean water.
• Fleshy roots should be seperated from the bunch by
hands.
• Ventilated racks are used to store musli tubers foe
next year in controlled temperature of 25-310C and
at RH of 50-65%.
 Need for Cultivation
• Global demand for musli is necessiating the
cultivation.
• As illustrated, Safed Musli is a precious medicinal
plant with expanding demand in domestic and
international market.
• Forest was the only source, which is fast depleting
since over exploitation hence its cultivation is
must.
References:
• Alice Kurian, M., Asha Sankar., 2007, Medicinal
Plants, New India Publishing Agency: 246-251.
• Manjunatha., Tyagi. and Srinivasan., 2004, Safed
Musli; A white Gold, Agrobios (India): 11-18.
• Kumar, R. R.; Reddy, L. P.; Patel, R. P.; Rajput, D. K.
and Sastry, K. P., 2009, Influence of plant
morphology on root yield in Safed Musli to identify
morphological marker traits. Electronic J. Plant
Breed., 1(2): 212-216.
• Biradar, M. S.; Angadi, S. G.; Mokashi, A. N.;
Hosamani, R. M.; Bhat, S.and Hegde, L., 2001, In
vitro performance of safed musli explants.
Karnataka J. Agric. Sci., 24(3):369-370.
• Kulmi, G. S.and Tyagi, S. K., 2010, Response
of safed musli varieties to organic nutrition in
vertisols of Malwa Plateau of Madhya Pradesh. J.
Med. Arom. Pl. Sci., 32(1): 58-60.
• Chauhan, H. S.; Aparbal Singh; Singh, H. P.; Singh, A.
K.; Chattopadhyay, A.; Raj Kumari and Prasad,
A.,2005, Influence of FYM and NPK fertilizers on
growth and yield of safed musli production. J. Med.
Arom. Pl. Sci.,27(2): 280-282.
• Kothari, S. K. and Reddy, P. S., 2009, Response
of safed musli to methods of planting, spacing,
harvesting age and cropping system. J. Med. Arom.
Pl. Sci.,31(4): 302-307.
• Patel, D. H.; Patel, M. A.; Sriram, S. and Parmar, J. R.,
2009, Inter cropping safed musli (Chlorophytum
borivilianum). Int. J. Agric. Sci., 5(2): 595-596.
• Upadhyay, A.; Mishra, M.and D,wivedi, S. K., 2007,
Effect of drying methods on quality parameters
of safed musli root. J. Biomed., 2(3): 283-287.
• Raghu, B.; Laxminarayan Hegde; Rokhade, A.
K.; Adiga, J. D. and Patil, P. B.,2006, Effect of pre-
treatments and drying methods on quality and
saponin content of safed musli tuers. J. Biomed.,
1(1): 42-45.
Thank
You