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An erect, green perennial under shrub, 15-45 cm. (rarely 90cm) high; tap root tuberous, soft, sometimes irregularly nodular; bark pale brown, corky with irregular longitudinal fissures; leaves in whorl of three, large, 7.5-17.5cm × 4.3-6.8 cm., elliptic-lanceolate or obavate, acute or acuminate, dark green above and pale green below; flowers white or
pinkish, in many-flowered cyme; fruit a drupe, slightly connate, obliquely ovoid, purplish black; pyrenes slightly rugose.
[video=youtube_share;OJvlSmS5XEU]http://youtu.be/OJvlSmS5XEU[/video]
R. serpentina can be propagated by seeds, root cuttings, root stumps and stem cuttings. Seed propagation is done by direct sowing of seeds in the field has not been found successful and hence seedlings are raised in the nursery and transplanted in the field. The germination percentage of seeds is very poor and variable (25-50%) and is often as low as 10 percent. This is attributed partly to the adverse influence of the stony endocarp. For propagation root cuttings, large tap roots with a few filliform lateral secondary rootlets are used. Cuttings 2.5-5.0 cm long are planted horizontally about 5 cm. near 50% of the root cutting sprouts in about a month.
Propagation by root stumps using about 5 cm of root and a portion of stem above the collar. This method met with about 90-95 percent success or sometime even 100 percent.
Stem cuttings taken from woody twigs have also been tried for propagation. Hard wood cuttings have been found better than softwood cuttings; cuttings, 15.0-23.0 cm long having three internodes are most suitable.
Soil and Climate :
The plant grows in a wide variety of soils. The ideal pH 4.6 -- 6.5. It prefers hot humid climate, humus rich sandy loam soil. A climate with a temperature range of 10 -- 30°C seems to be well suited for this plant.
Uses :
Sarpagandha is used for the treatment of paranoia, schizophrenia, and hypertension.
Propagation :
Rauvolfia can be propagated by seed and also by vegetative means like root cutting, root stumps, and
stem cutting.
Planting :
Transplanting of the nursery grown seedlings of 40-50 days.
Irrigation :
Sarpagandha is cultivated as a rainfed crop. However, 4 irrigations if available in summer and 2 in winter at one month interval may be applied for higher yield.
Weeding :
Weeding, cleaning, hoeing twice during rains and after rains.
Harvesting & processing :
The marketable roots are generally collected 2-3 years after plantation preferably after 30 months of planting.
Yield :
The average yield of Rauvolfia dry root is approximately 1,500 kg/ha under average management when harvested at 30 months.