Though the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) has included Safed Musali as a prioritized medicinal plant among a select list of 32 herbs for large-scale industrial cultivation in the country, some Ayurvedic experts have raised serious doubts over its relation to ISM drug manufacturing.
They point out that Safed Musali is neither an active ingredient of any of the ISM drugs, nor it lacks much demand in the lucrative global medicinal plant market, though some quarters have been trying recently to wrongly hype Safed Musali as an active ingredient in the making of Chyavanprasha, one among the most selling Ayurvedic preparation.
According to Prof.T.A.Panicker, an expert botanical scientist, Safed Musali (botanically Chlorophyturn Borivillanum), is not at all used as an ingredient in any of the medicines of Ayurvedic drugs manufacturers in Kerala, where most of the drug firms make traditional medicines according to the classical texts. Further, Safed Musali is not even mentioned in the authoritative five-volume book ‘A compendium of five hundred medicinal plants’, published by Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal.
‘In the Indian tradition of treatment, we use more than 7500 medicinal plants, both in the folk or local stream which has empirical knowledge or decentralized data, and in the codified or scientific stream which has classical texts which provide the scientific data. If my knowledge is right, Safed Musali or its curative properties is not mentioned in any of ancient classical texts like Rigveda, Charaka/Sushrutha/Brihathrayi Samhitha (up to 7th century B.C.), the 13 texts from Ashtanga Nighandu to Kayyadeva Nighandu (upto A.D.9th century), 11 classical texts like Bhavaprakasha Nighandu to Saligrama Nighandu from 1665 A.D. to 1896 A.D.’, according to Dr.Panikkar in the news magazine of the Ayurvedic Medicine Manufacturers Association (AMMOI).
Some sources point out that Safed Musali, which is not included as a drug in the Indian pharmacopoeia, lacks much demand in the external markets. An assessment of the Andhra Pradesh Medicinal Plants Board had shown that the herb lacked demand from buyers.
The National Medicinal Plants Board claims that by spending Rs. 9,25,000 per hectare for cultivating Safed Musali, the net income could be to the tune of Rs.1,62, 05, 000 per year with a profit margin of at least of Rs.7 lakh. However, it gives a warning that market for medicinal plants is volatile and it may vary according to the demands. Interestingly, the NMPB has excluded the data on Safed Musali in its web page detailing the market demand in tonnes for 2004 –05 period, and the possible annual growth rate, though it has publicized the same for most of the other 32 prioritized medicines for large scale industrial cultivation.