ISUBGOL
        

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Common name -Isubgol

Plant is a stemless annual herb often attaining a height of 30 to 40 cm, with rosette leaves. The plant bears erect ovoid or cylindrical spike with minute white flowers about 45-68, protogynous. Fruits is capsule, each seed is encased in a thin, white, translucent membrane, the husk, which is odourless and tasteless.

Availability of Isubgol is in the form of seed and husk.

Geographical distribution

In India it is grown in about 16,000 to 20,000 hectare in North Gujarat and it is also recently cultivated in small areas in Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar. The husk and peel are exported largely to USA, West Germany, the UK and France, fetching a foreign exchange of more than 10 crores annually.

Gujarat agricultural University has released two improved varieties viz. Gujarat Isubgol –1 and Isubgol –2, which have a yield potential of 800 – 900 kg and 1000 kg/ha. respectively.

Which have been used in the indigenous medicine for many countries. It has the property of absorbing and retaining water (40-90%) and therefore it works as an anti-diarrhoea drug. It is beneficial in chronic dysentries of amoebic and basillary origin. The seed has also cooling and demulcent effect and is used in ayurvedic, unani and allopathic medicines. The husk yields a colloidal mucilage consisting mainly of xylose, arabinose and galacturonic acid.

Plants of Isubgol grow upto height of 30 to 45cm. This plant lacks stem and leaves are 7 to 20cm in length. Planting of this crop can be done in October to November. For cultivation of this crop light to medium type of soil is considered as the best for cultivation. Seed rate required for planting is 8 to 10kg seed/ha. This plant is not having deep root system and hence light irrigations are required. Fertilizer dose required is about 40 to 50 kg of nitrogen and 25 to 30kg of potassium should be given while application of fertilizer half of the dose should be applied before planting and remaining half should be applied one month after planting. For harvesting it takes four months for the crop. After 50 to 60 days from planting flowering occures. As soon as the yellowing of plants takes place harvesting should be done. Yield obtained is 10 to 12q/ha. It requires cool and dry weather and hence in India, the crop is grown in winter i.e. from November-December to March-April. Humid weather at maturity results in shattering of seeds. A light well-drained sandy loan to rich loamy soil with a p^H of 7-8 is ideal. Field must be free of weeds and clods and should have fine tilth for good germination. The land is laid into flat beds of convenient sizes i.e. 1.0m x 3.0m or 2.5m or 2.5m. Fresh seeds from the preceding crop season should be sown for getting high percent germination. The seed rate varies from 4-6kg and is sown after pretreatment with thiram @ 3g/kg of seed to protect the seedlight from the possible damage of damping off. The seeds, being small seeds are sown broadcast and are swept lightly with a broom in one direction to cover them with some soil. The crop will be ready in about 110-130 days after sowing. When mature, the crop turns yellowish and the spike turns brownish. The seeds are shed when the spikes are pressed even slightly. At the time of harvest, the atmosphere must be dry and there should not be any moisture on the plant. The plants are normally cut at the ground level or are uprooted if the soil is loose textured. The harvested plants are threshed and winnowed, and the seeds repeatedly sifted until clean. The seeds may be marketed whole or the husk may be sold separately.

In Gujarat State in about 15-20 factories removal of husk is done which has medicinal property. From seeds of Isubgol 30% husk is obtained while remaining 70% is used for animal fodder purpose. Seeds are fed to a series of shellers, in each sheller the grinding pressure is so adjusted to remove only the husk. This is separated by fans and sieves at each sheller and the unground material is sent to the next sheller. The husk: seed ratio is 25:75 by weight. The average yield is about one tonne of seeds per hectare.

Isubgol is sold on Rs.85/kg and husk is sold on Rs.57/kg. In international market it has great demand. India gets nearly Rs.2.5 crore foreign exchange per year due to the export of Isubgol.