P.O. Box 44, PHALTAN-415 523, Maharashtra (India)

Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L. is a member of the family Compositae or Asteraceae, 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 China have become known to the rest of the world in last few years rekindling the interest in this crop. Some of the various uses of safflower have been listed in Table 1.

Safflower is one of humanity’s oldest crops, but has remained a minor crop with world seed production around 800,000 t per year. Over 60 countries grow safflower, but over half the production takes place in India. The plant has a strong taproot, which enables it to thrive in dry climates.

Traditionally in India, safflower is grown only as a rainfed, winter crop on residual soil moisture. Also generally it is intercropped with cereals such as wheat and sorghum.

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 an 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 India Coordinated Research Project on Oilseeds to work specifically on "irrigated" safflower.

For last 30 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.

1. 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 rouging of MF plants relatively easy.
2. Technology for the production of spiny and non-spiny safflower hybrids based on genetic male sterility system has also been developed.
3. Developed cytoplasmic male sterility systems in safflower through mutagenesis with streptomycin treatment and by interspecific crossing.
4. Studied genetics of flower yield and its components in safflower in order to develop varieties and hybrids producing high petal and seed yield.

Highest seed yields could be obtained when

1. Safflower was planted in the first week of October.
2. Plant population of about 100 thousands/ha was maintained.
3. Fertilizer containing 60 Kg/ha N (in split doses) and 30 Kg/ha P₂O₅ was applied to the crop.
4. Two irrigations - first at elongation (35 days after sowing) and second at flowering stage (75 days after sowing) were applied, in addition to a pre-sowing irrigation.
5. Crop was protected against diseases such as alternaria leaf spot and wilt and insects such as aphids and heliothis.

A safflower capitulum (head) is nothing but an inflorescence containing many florets arranged in several circles (Fig. 1). 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 safflower 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 :

• A simple and easy to use method of color extraction from safflower flowers has been developed and the suitability and concentrations of color required to color sweets and snacks have been determined.
• A pleasant tasting safflower tea, using safflower flowers as a main ingredient, which was mixed with other aromatic herbs to enhance its aroma and quality for mass acceptability, has been developed. This tea can be made in regular fashion and can be drunk with or without milk. We are popularizing this as a herbal health tea in India.
• Pharmacological investigations of safflower tea were carried out to study efficacy and safety of safflower tea, when given as an add-on therapy in patients suffering from mild hypertension by Dr. U. M. Thatte, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacology at BYL Nair Charitable Hospital and T. N. Medical College, Mumbai. The study concluded that the addition of safflower tea (three cups a day) to the ongoing antihypertensive monotherapy successfully reduced the blood pressure in patients of mild hypertension. It was observed that in safflower-treated group, the percentage decrease in blood pressure was more between day 0 and day 15 as compared to that between day 15 and day 30. This may be attributed to one or more of the three reasons :
• The compliance of the patient might have decreased from day 15 onwards due to cumbersome method of tea preparation. The ready to dip sachets can be an alternative.
• Patients might have developed tolerance. In this case the dose of safflower may need to increase after day 15.
• The safflower may have lost potency after day 15. It is therefore recommended to conduct stability testing after regular time intervals.

It was felt that collecting florets 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 2500 to 3000 Kg seed, the hybrids were found to yield 250 to 300 Kg petals per hectare. This should give a net profit of about Rs. 35 to 40,000/- per hectare to the farmers from the non-spiny safflower hybrids. From spiny safflower hybrids, farmers get a net profit of about Rs. 25 to 30,000/- per hectare. For farmers to get extra income from the petals, we have developed a battery-operated knapsack type petal collector (Fig. 2). This will enable them to increase their net profit from spiny hybrids to Rs. 35,000/- 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. 20 to 25,000/- per ha.

During last two years we have locally sold about 50 Kg petals as herbal tea on an experimental basis. The response from the local population has been quite positive.

The major source of funding to safflower improvement at NARI for over 30 years and continuing till date has been from Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. Some funding for ad-hoc projects has also been received from Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The funding received from all the agencies is thankfully acknowledged.

Safflower staff

1. Dr. Vrijendra Singh, Senior Breeder

2. Mr. M. B. Deshpande

3. Mr. S. R .Deshmukh

4. Mr. J. H. Akade