SAFFLOWER IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME AT THE
NIMBKAR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (NARI)
Nimbkar
Agricultural Research Institute (NARI),
E-mail: nariphaltan@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
1. Background
Safflower, Carthamus
tinctorius L. is a member of the family Compositae or Asteraceae. It is
cultivated mainly for its seeds, which yield edible oil. Traditionally, the
crop was grown for its flowers, used for coloring and flavoring foods and
making dyes. The medicinal uses of flower in
Table
1: Safflower uses
Plant part |
Product |
Uses |
(1) Seed |
i) Quality edible oil containing polyunsaturated fats ii) Meal left after oil extraction |
Associated with lowering of blood
cholesterol Used as animal feed |
(2) Flowers |
i) Natural food and cosmetic
coloring (Carthamin dye) ii)
Dyes (Carthamidin and carthamin) iii) Medicines |
Gives yellow to bright orange color to
food products and cosmetics such as lipsticks Give crimson, rose, pink or light pink
color to cotton yarn Extract of florets contains amino acids,
minerals and vitamins and is used in treatment of many illnesses such as
menstrual problems, cardiovascular disease and pain and swelling associated
with trauma as well as in tonic tea |
(3) Whole plant |
i) Tender shoots and thinnings
or nippings ii) Dried stalk or straw |
Used for preparing a nutritious vegetable
or grazed Used as a fodder similar to cereal straw or as fuel for biomass gasifiers to produce energy and char for soil conditioning |
Safflower is
one of humanity’s oldest crops, but has remained a minor crop with world seed
production around 600,000 t per year. Over 60 countries grow safflower, but
one-third the production takes place in
Traditionally
in
Despite its
reputation as a drought-tolerant and hardy crop, the research carried out at
NARI in the late 1960s showed that safflower gives good response to management
practices such as irrigation, fertilizer application and pest control. For
example the application of one or two irrigations to safflower crop at critical
growth stages could boost the seed yield by as much as 50 percent. Likewise the
use of recommended fertilizers and timely management of pests also had similar
effects on seed yield in safflower. Since 1975, NARI has been a center under
the All
For last 35
years, NARI has been working to popularize safflower among farmers as a pure
crop to be grown under 1 to 3 irrigations depending on availability of water.
2. Highlights of work
done at NARI
I) Development
of spiny and non-spiny varieties and hybrids of safflower giving high
seed yield, oil content and having inbuilt tolerance to wilt for minimal
irrigation
Table
2. Characteristics of safflower varieties/hybrids released by NARI
Sr.
No. |
Name of cultivar |
Year of release and recom-mended region of production |
Average seed yield (Kg/ha) |
Increase
in seed yield over check (%) |
Oil
content (%) |
Characteristics |
1. |
Nira
(Spiny variety) |
1986
|
1576 |
24 Bhima |
31.5 |
Early maturing, aphid-tolerant and widely adapted. |
2. |
NARI-6 (Non-spiny variety) |
2000
All
India |
1074 |
20 JSI-7 |
35 |
High oil containing, tolerant to foliar and wilt diseases. Produces dark red flowers. |
3. |
NARI-NH-1 (First non-spiny hybrid in the world) |
2001 All
|
1936 |
10 A-1 |
35 |
High oil containing, tolerant to foliar and wilt diseases. |
4. |
NARI-H-15 (Spiny hybrid) |
2005 All
|
2201 |
19 NARI-NH-1 |
30 |
Early maturing, tolerant to aphids and wilt. |
5. |
NARI-38 (Spiny variety) |
2007 All
|
2038 |
9 A-1 |
31 |
First wilt-tolerant variety released for
commercial production in |
i.
Development
of thermosensitive genetic male sterility (TGMS) system in safflower. TGMS lines in safflower show 100% sterility
during winter and complete fertility when grown in summer. The average minimum
and maximum temperatures during reproductive phase of safflower were recorded
to be < 13 to 320C respectively in winter and > 21 and 390C
respectively in summer. The TGMS-based hybrids irrespective of the season they
are grown in, exhibit complete fertility.
ii.
The best
TGMS hybrid recorded an increase of 45% in seed yield over the CMS-hybrid check
MRSA-521 under rainfed conditions during winter 2007-08.
iii.
Safflower
varieties in pipeline consist of varieties giving high seed yield along with high
oil content in seed (37-40%) and inbuilt tolerance to wilt.
iv.
Safflower
genotype viz. 238-14-2 and fasciated derivatives of an interspecific cross
between C. palaestinus and C. tinctorius were
identified as expressing apomixis. The apomixis in safflower was observed to be
aposporic, pseudogamus and facultative in nature. Efforts are underway to
determine the frequency of apomictic plants in the said genotypes for their
possible utilization in safflower improvement.
v.
Ten spiny
and three non-spiny genetic male sterile lines have been developed from two
different genetic male sterility sources identified at NARI. In addition to
these, six dwarf male sterile lines have also been developed. These make it
possible to identify male sterile (MS) and male fertile (MF) plants at about
40-45 days after sowing, making roguing out of MF plants relatively easy.
II) Development of suitable technology for growing
safflower under limited irrigation
Highest
seed yields could be obtained when
i.
Safflower
was planted in the first week of October.
III) Studies on safflower flowers (florets) and
popularization of safflower florets as a herbal health tea
A safflower capitulum (head) is nothing but an
inflorescence containing many florets arranged in several circles (Fig. 2).
Safflower flowers are known to possess many medicinal properties for curing
several chronic diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, male sterility,
female infertility, respiratory diseases etc.
In addition to their medicinal uses safflower flowers
are also highly nutritious. In order to determine nutritiveness and suitability
of safflower flowers of Indian cultivars for human consumption, flowers of
non-spiny variety NARI-6 and non-spiny hybrid NARI-NH-1, developed at NARI were
analyzed for biochemical composition at CFTRI, Mysore. The flowers of both the
cultivars were found suitable for human consumption and were highly nutritive.
Their biochemical properties are furnished below:
Table
3. Nutritional composition of flowers
of safflower variety NARI-6 and hybrid NARI-NH-1
Nutritive parameters |
NARI-6 |
NARI-NH-1 |
Total sugar, % by wt. Protein, % by wt. Potassium, mg/100 g Calcium, mg/100 g Magnesium, mg/100 g Iron, mg/100 g Sodium, mg/100 g Manganese, mg/100 g Zinc, mg/100 g Copper, mg/100 g |
7.36 12.86 3992.00 558.00 207.00 55.10 1043.00 4.34 2.88 4.73 |
11.81 10.40 3264.00 708.00 142.00 42.50 17.00 4.70 2.60 1.10 |
Table
4. Amino acid composition of flowers of
non-spiny safflower hybrid NARI-NH-1
Sr. no. |
Amino acid |
(g %) |
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. |
Aspartic
acid Glutamic
acid Serine Glycine Histidine Arginine Threonine Alanine Proline Tyrosine Valine Methionine Cysteine Isoleucine Leucine Phenylalanine Lysine Hydroxyproline |
5.09 9.78 6.02 6.97 2.27 5.72 4.78 8.66 8.96 2.81 6.77 1.49 0.18 5.63 8.63 5.28 5.35 5.63 |
·
A simple and
easy to use method of color extraction from safflower flowers has been
developed and the suitability and concentrations of dye required to color sweets
and snacks have been determined.
It was felt that collecting florets and selling them
should be able to give good remuneration to farmers. However, spiny nature of
the plant was a hindrance to flower collection. For this reason, non-spiny
varieties and hybrids were bred at NARI. In addition to 2000 to 2500 Kg seed,
the hybrids were found to yield 200 to 250 Kg petals per hectare. This should
give a net profit of about Rs. 30 to 35,000/- per hectare to the farmers from the
non-spiny safflower hybrids. From spiny safflower hybrids, farmers get a net
profit of about Rs. 15 to 20,000/- per hectare. For farmers to get extra income
from the petals, we have developed a battery-operated knapsack type petal
collector (Fig. 3). This will enable them to increase their net profit from
spiny hybrids to Rs. 25,000/- or more per hectare. These net profit figures
also compare favorably with those from other winter crops such as wheat or
gram, which give a net profit of about Rs. 25 to 30,000/- per ha.
During last two years we have sold about 60 Kg petals
as herbal tea on an experimental basis. The response from the consumers has
been quite positive.
ONGOING R & D PROGRAM
i.
To
develop spiny and non-spiny safflower varieties and hybrids giving high seed
yield and oil content with inbuilt resistance to wilt.
SERVICES OFFERED
·
NARI can help
in procurement of bulk quantities of safflower petals (florets).
Acknowledgements
The major source of funding to safflower improvement
at NARI for over 35 years and continuing till to date has been from Indian
Council of Agricultural Research,
References
1. Singh, Vrijendra, M. K. Galande, S. R. Deshmukh, M.
B. Deshpande and N. Nimbkar. 2001. "Identification of male sterile
cytoplasm in safflower". In : Proceedings Vth International Safflower
Conference, Williston (
2. Singh, Vrijendra, N. Nimbkar and A. K. Rajvanshi,
2001. "Safflower Research and Development at Nimbkar Agricultural Research
Institute (NARI)", In : Proceedings Vth International Safflower
3. Nimbkar, N. 2002. Safflower rediscovered. Times
Agricultural Journal. 2(1) : 32-36.
4. Singh, Vrijendra, M. B. Deshpande and N. Nimbkar.
2003. NARI-NH-1 : The first non-spiny hybrid safflower released in
5.
Rajvanshi,
A. K., 2005. "Safflower
Petal Collector", In : Proceedings VIth International Safflower Conference,
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Vegetable Oils Scenario : Issues and Challenges Before
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M. Ranaware and N. Nimbkar. 2008.
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Safflower staff
1. Dr. Vrijendra Singh, Senior Breeder
2. Mr. M. B. Deshpande
3. Mr. J. H. Akade
4. Mr. S. V. Choudhari
5. Mr. Abhijit Ranaware
December
2008