Shatavari extract begins as a tuberous root that takes more than a year to grow, is dug by hand and has historically been gathered from the wild. Understanding that root explains most of what buyers see in the extract market: the seasonal price movement, the substitution pressure, and why continuity of supply is a question worth asking before price.
Where it grows
Asparagus racemosus is a climbing perennial native across the Indian subcontinent. Commercial cultivation is concentrated in Gujarat (the Saurashtra belt), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, with smaller areas in Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and the Northeast. The plant tolerates poor soils and is promoted under the National Medicinal Plants Board schemes, which has pulled a growing share of supply from wild collection into farms over the last two decades.
The crop cycle
Propagation is by seed or by crown division, planted with the monsoon. The tuberous roots are the crop, and they take roughly 12 to 18 months to reach a harvestable size; many growers lift at 12 to 15 months for cash flow, which yields a smaller root with a different saponin profile from an older one. Harvest is by hand, after which the roots are washed, the outer skin peeled, the tubers split and sun- or shade-dried to a hard, pale root that is stable for storage. Drying is the quality step: slow, clean drying keeps microbial load low and colour pale; rushed drying in the rain produces the dark, mouldy lots that fail incoming microbiology.
Wild collection and conservation
Wild shatavari from forest areas still enters the supply chain, and in several Indian states the species is treated as threatened by over-collection. For a buyer this matters in two ways. First, wild material is variable and undocumented, and it is where species substitution starts. Second, sustainability due diligence is becoming a customer question in Europe and North America. Ask for the cultivation status on the specification (cultivated or wild-collected, with the origin district) and prefer cultivated material for continuity.
From root to extract
Extraction plants buy dried root against the harvest, typically in the first half of the year, and extract with water or hydroalcoholic solvent to a 20% to 60% saponin grade. The herb-to-extract ratio depends on the grade and on the root: young, small roots need more raw material per kilogram of extract. Two facts follow. Root price set at harvest flows into extract quotes for the rest of the year, and a supplier who cannot tell you the origin and season of the root behind a lot is telling you something about their supply chain.
Questions to put to a supplier
- Cultivated or wild-collected, and from which district?
- Root age at harvest, and drying method.
- Which harvest is the current lot extracted from, and how much of it remains?
- Extraction solvent and herb-to-extract ratio for the grade quoted.
- Continuity: how many extraction partners, and what happens in a weak harvest year?
What we do
SV Botanica sources cultivated A. racemosus root through audited partner facilities, states the botanical name and plant part on every document, and quotes with the origin and harvest season on request. The 20% EU-grade lot on the product page is the current reference, with its COA and specification published. For how the root’s variability shows up in the assay, read the saponin standardisation guide; for what can go wrong between the field and the drum, the authenticity guide.
Cultivated, root-only Shatavari from India
Origin and harvest season on request, three saponin grades, published COA and specification.