Medicinal Plants

Glory Lily or African climbing lily (Gloriosa superba)

Introduction


  • Glory lily is a tall, weak-stemmed climbing annual, medicinal herb native to India. The seeds and rhizomes, which are poisonous, contain alkaloids colchicines and superbine.
  • Colchicines is widely used to treat gout, rheumatism and for inducing polyploidy in plants. Traditionally the tubers are considers tonic, stomachic and anthelmentic when taken in small doses.
  • The plant grows wild in many parts of Andhra Pradesh Glory lily can be grown as an irrigated crop in Andhra Pradesh in well drained red or black loamy soils having pH 6.0-7.0. It is commercially grown in Periyar district of Tamil Nadu

Varieties

  • There are no release varieties in this crop

Nursery

  • The crop can be propagated by seeds or rhizomes, rhizomes are generally preferred. tubers weighing 50-60 g and treated with 0.1% carbendazim or organomercurial fungicides are used for seeding @ 1,250 kg per hectare

Cultivation

  • The land is ploughed, harrowed and planked to good tilth. The treated tubes are planted 6-8 cm deep during rainy season in furrow spaced 60-200 cm apart with an interplant spacing of 45-60 cm.
  • Balsmodendran beryii is planted on either side of tubers as a life prop or trellis or supports are erected for the plant to climb on the supports. The crop is irrigated immediately after ploughing

Interculture and irrigation

  • At early stages, crop is irrigated once in 4-7 days, later at 15 days intervals. The crop is kept weed free by 4-8 manual weedings.
  • short duration legumes can be grown as intercrops.

Fertilisers

  • 10 tonnes of well rotten farm yard manure , 50 kg urea, 300 kg single super phosphate and 250 kg muriate of potash per hectare are applied at the time of planting. 75 kg urea is top dressed at the time of flowering

Pests and diseases

  • The crop is sprayed with Nuvan or Metacid( 260 ml in 500 liters of water) to protect from caterpillars.
  • To control leaf blight , crop is sprayed with o0.2 % mancozeb and the soil is drenched with 0.2% carbendazim to avoid rhizome

Harvesting - Profits

  • The crop flowers during September- October and matures in 170-180 days. A single plant produces 75-100 flowers and a single fruit contains 70-100 seeds.
  • The crop yields 200-250 kg seed and more than 3000 kg of rhizomes per hectare.
  • At a price of Rs 10 per kg of seeds and 34/- per kg of rhizome. the gross profit per hectare is 104,000-104,500 and the net profit is Rs 58,000-59,300 per hectare. T
  • There is no organized market in Andhra Pradesh. Recently a firm in Visakhapatnam is encouraging its cultivation with buy-back arrangements. Farmers are advised to make market arrangements before taking up cultivation

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