The crop was introduced to study its growth performance (Fig. 5.14 and 5.15), production of essential oil and sclareol in the mid hills of western Himalaya. Sclareol is a fixing material and is preferred in high-grade perfumery and cosmetics. It has antiinflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-fungal and analgesics action. In January 2004, about 40 days old seedlings were transplanted in the field. About 140 days old crop in full bloom was harvested in first week of June, 2004.

Fresh weight of plant was recorded at the time of harvest. On dry weight basis, maximum weight was recorded for stem (28.48 q /ha) whereas minimum weight was gained by root (18.01 q/ ha). Oil content of inflorescence was 0.84% on fresh weight basis and 1.68% on dry weight basis. Computed oil yield from inflorescence was 10.62 L/ha (Table 5.7). Similarly, sclareol content was also calculated from different plant parts. Maximum sclareol content was noticed in inflorescence, followed by leaf. Minimum sclareol content was recorded in stem. Sclareol yield was highest in inflorescence (17.42 kg/ ha) followed by stem and leaf. Total sclareol from whole plant was about 19.91 kg /ha (Table 5.8).

Table 5.7 Yield of different plant parts (q/ ha), oil content and oil yield (kg/ha) in S. sclarea at time of harvesting 

Table 5.8 Content and yield of sclareol in different parts of S. sclarea

S. officinalis was introduced and pot culture studies were done under controlled and open field conditions to study the oil composition. Under controlled conditions, essential oil content from leaf was higher than open field. Variation in volatile oil composition was observed in leaf oil and flower oil. The leaf oil had major constituents, 1:8 cineol (15.43%), bornyl acetate (21.10%), myrtenyl acetate (76.78%), borneol (3.31%) and neridifloral (3.84%) while flower oil contained 1:8 cineol (17.95%), bornyl acetate (15.23%), myrtenyl acetate (5.24%) borneol (9.46%) and virdifloral (9.25%).

The data showed significant effect of plant spacing on growth parameters, number of leaves/ plant, leaf width and root volume (Table 5.7). The number of leaves was maximum (28.77) in crop planted at 60x45 sq cm spacing, whereas leaf width and root volume were highest (12.47 cm and 11.28 ml) with 60x30 sq cm and 60x60 sq cm respectively. The effect of FYM levels was significant for plant-spread, leaf length, leaf width and root length. The plant-spread and root length were higher when no FYM applied, while leaf length and width were maximum at 40 t/ha and 20 t/ha of FYM respectively.

Table 5.7 Effect of plant spacing and FYM levels on growth of Salvia sclarea at harvest

Among the plant spacing, 60x60 sq cm resulted in longer inflorescence (72.36 cm) and higher number of spikelets/spike (17.77), whereas number of flowers/spikelet was highest at 60x45 sq cm spacing. Among the FYM levels, 20 t/ha gave maximum number of spikelets/spike (17.17, Table 5.9).

It was evident that fresh and dry inflorescence yield (69.39 and 12.58 g), fresh leaf and stem yield (68.22 g) and fresh root yield (11.41 g) per plant was maximum in crop at 60x60 sq cm spacing, while dry root yield was highest at 60x45 sq cm spacing. Among the FYM levels, fresh root yield was significantly highest (12.12 g) at 20 t/ha. The above experiment was replanted in October 2005 for confirmation of the results.

Table 5.8 Sclareol content in Salvia sclarea