The Hindu Business Line : `No mention of safed musli in Ayurveda texts'

SAFED Musli, a medicinal plant, which has shot in to popularity of late as a lucrative crop encouraging farmers in the southern States to take up its cultivation extensively, does not seem to find a place in the Ayurvedic scriptures as a component in the formulation of medicines.

According to Prof T.A. Panicker, formerly Head of the Botany department of the Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, and an expert on medicinal plants research, there are 282 ayurvedic drug manufacturing units in the Northern districts of Kerala using 11,362.63 tonne of raw materials i.e., medicinal plants, herbs etc.

In none of these drugs formulations even one gram of Safed Musli is used as a component, he said quoting Kerala Forest Research Institute statistics, he pointed out.

Besides, he said, there is no reference of this plant in the Compendium of Five Hundred Medicinal Plants in five volumes published by the Kottakkal Arya Vaidyasala.

In the traditional system of medicine 7,500 flowering plants are used. He said that for Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Emachi (Tibetan) there were written records on Palm leaves and texts.

In Ayurveda there are scriptures/texts explaining the plant names and their uses, such as Rigveda, Charaka, Susrutha and Brahthrayi Samhita. Neither in these nor in the "Ashtanga Nigandu" (dictionary) of Vakbhadan and the subsequent 13 books up to the one of Kayyadeva written till the 9th century, the name of safed musli does not appear.

Even in the 11 works authored later between the year 1665 to 1896 such as Bhavaprakash Nigandu to Saligrama Nigandu, where in thousands of medicinal plants and their uses had been explained, also do not have any reference of safed musli, he claimed.

It may have some relation with Ayurveda. However, it had not been referred in any of the ancient scriptures, said Prof Panicker, who was also the Head of Medicinal Plants Division of Coimbatore Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, in "Oushadham" of Ayurvedic Medicine Manufacturers Organisation of India.

Safed Musli belongs to the family of "Lillyesia" and its botanical name is Chlorophypum Arundanaceum baker C borivillianum. It is seen in Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. When systematically cultivated its yield is estimated at 1000 kg per hectare, he said.

It is included in the list of 31 medicinal plants recommended to be cultivated in the country by the Central Board for Medicinal Plants. It has been mentioned in the Board's publication that the total cost for cultivating safed musli in one hectare would come to Rs 9,25,000 while the return would be around Rs 16,25,000, making the net profit of Rs 7 lakh.

However, he said, the government had warned the growers saying that "market for medicinal plants is volatile and the economics may vary".

According to the information available with the Andhra Pradesh Medicinal Plants Board there is not enough demand for safed musli in the country besides it is not being exported also.

At the same time it has not been included in the Indian pharmacopoeia, he added.

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