Aromatic Plants

Davana (Artemisia pallens)

Introduction

  • The essential oil of davana is widely used in food flavouring and perfumery industries.
  • Davana twigs are used to add an element of freshness and sweet fragrance to garlands, bouquets, etc., The crop is cultivated in South Indian states only. Dvana is an annual, winter season aromatic herb growing to a height of 30 60 cm.
  • Davana can be cultivated as an irrigated crop throughout Andhra Pradesh in well-drained light to medium textured soils of neutral PH.
  • India is the only producer and exporter of Davana oil.

Nursery

  • Davana is propagated through seeds by raising nursery. About 1.5 kg freshly collected, viable seeds are required for one hectare.
  • The seeds are mixed with Captan or Thiram at 3 g/kg and stand in 1:10 proportion, moistened, bundled and kept in a cloth or gunny bag for 2 - 3 days with periodical moistening with water.
  • The pre-germinated seeds are sown in nursery beds in the month of October and watered regularly. 0.2 per cent urea solution is sprayed on the seedlings four weeks after seedling for vigorous growth of seedlings.
  • The seedlings are ready for planting in 6 - 8 weeks after sowing.

Cultivation

  • The land is prepared to good tilth by ploughing, harrowing and levelling.
  • 15 tonnes of well rotten FYM, 300 kg single superphosphate and 65 kg muriate of potash per hectare are applied basally.
  • The seedlings taken old from the nursery are planted in the ain field with a spacing of 15 or 30 cm between thje rows and 15 cm or 7.5 cm between the plants (444444 plants/hectare) in December.
  • The field is irrigated on alternate days until plants establish, thereafter the crop is irrigated at 5 - 7 day intervals during non-rainy periods.

Interculture - Fertilizers

  • The field is kept free of weds during the initial stages of crop establishement and frowth and after first harvest by manual weeding.
  • Davana crop is fertilized thrice with 80 kg urea per hectare each time. First at the time of transplanting, then one and two months after transplanting.
  • 80 kg urea is applied after the first harvest, for the ratoon crop, 25 - 50 kg zinc sulphate per hectare is applied in zinc deficient soils. Micronutrtients and growth regulators are sprayed for every harvest.

Plant protection

  • Davana crop is not affected by any pest or disease in Andhra Pradesh, therefore, no plant protection practices need be practised.

Harvesting - Profits

  • Flowring herb is harvested 8 - 10 cm above ground level 90 - 100 days after transplanting and the crop is left for ratooning. Ratoon
  • crop harvest is obtained 60 - 80 days after first harvest. The two harvests yield 10 - 12 kg oil and Rs. 50000 - 70000 net profit per hectare with an oil price of Rs. 10000 per kg.

Distillation

  • The oil si distilled from the flowring herb by a distillation process as described in palmarosa. Two to three days shade dried herb is used for the distillation. The recovery of oil from the shade dried herb is 0.2 per cent.
  • It takes about 8 - 10 hours of distillation for complete recovery of oil.

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