Safed musli is Chlorophytum borivilianum, a small perennial herb whose bundle of white, finger-like tuberous roots is peeled, dried and sold as an Ayurvedic raw drug. It grows wild in the hills of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, is now farmed as a monsoon crop, and is listed as endangered because wild roots were dug faster than the plant could replace them. This article is about the plant and the crop; if you are thinking of taking it for any health reason, follow your doctor's advice first.
At a glance
- ICAR's Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research describes safed musli as a perennial herb with 3 to 20 fasciculated roots, 8 to 25 cm long, dark-skinned and white after peeling.
- The Botanical Survey of India's Red Data Book of Indian Plants (1988) lists C. borivilianum as endangered, according to a 2012 paper in Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants.
- ICAR gives a fresh root yield of 2 to 3 tonnes per hectare, drying to 0.4 to 0.6 tonnes of peeled root, and puts the saponin content of the roots at 2 to 17 per cent.
- A 2013 review in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology concluded that the pharmacological studies on safed musli "do not stand the test of critical assessment".
What plant is safed musli?
Safed musli is the trade name for the dried tuberous roots of Chlorophytum borivilianum, a low-growing herb named by the botanists Santapau and Fernandes. ICAR's Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research (DMAPR) at Anand describes a perennial with up to 16 narrow leaves, white flowers, and a bundle of 3 to 20 tuberous roots, 8 to 25 cm long, brown to black outside and white once peeled.
Which family it belongs to depends on the age of your source: the ICAR article and a 2014 review in Indian Forester place it in Liliaceae, the old lily family, while a herbarium sheet from the University of Jammu gives the current placement, Asparagaceae, the asparagus family.
The name is looser than the species. ICAR counts around 300 Chlorophytum species worldwide and 13 in India, of which 6 or 7 are used in indigenous medicine. An FAO paper on safed musli lists several species under the one name and in places calls the plant C. tuberosum. The 2013 review by Khanam and colleagues notes that because of its high value, C. borivilianum "has also encountered a problem of adulteration with closely resembling medicinally inferior species".
Where does safed musli grow in India?
Wild, in the hill forests of western and central India. ICAR says the species is naturally distributed in the hilly areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra; the 2012 paper puts it more narrowly in southern Rajasthan, northern Gujarat and western Madhya Pradesh.
Cultivation followed the shortage. ICAR says the species became well known only in the late 1980s, that the roots are "mostly unscrupulously collected from their wild habitats", and that commercial cultivation is at present confined to the traditional area, on a small scale.
Why is safed musli listed as endangered?
Because the part that sells is the part that keeps the plant alive. ICAR explains that the tuber is the economic organ, so "the whole plant is removed" at harvest, and that this destructive digging, combined with shy flowering and poor seed set, has made C. borivilianum a threatened species. The FAO paper makes the same point from the forest side: "if the tubers are removed the herb can not be reestablished in the natural forests".
The formal listing is older than the boom. The 2012 paper by Tripathi and colleagues records that the Botanical Survey of India listed the species as endangered in its Red Data Book of Indian Plants in 1988. The FAO paper notes that under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, safed musli is forest produce, so moving it needs a transit pass. The pattern will be familiar from how shilajit is collected: a wild resource with a market larger than the hills can supply.
How is safed musli grown, harvested and dried?
As a rain-fed monsoon crop raised from last year's roots. ICAR's production guide says seed germination is poor, so growers plant stored root bunches instead: the disc at the top of each bunch carries the buds, and it is split so that each piece has 1 to 3 roots and weighs at least 5 g. Planting goes in with the first or second monsoon rain on raised beds or ridges. From there:
- Leaves wither after four to four and a half months; leave a gap for the roots to mature.
- Dig the roots from November to January, after a light irrigation to loosen the soil.
- Shade-dry the bunches for three to four days to shed moisture and soil.
- For sale, wash and peel the skin straight after harvest by scraping with a knife.
- Dry the peeled roots in a thin layer in partial shade at 35 to 40 °C for three to four days, stirring, so they keep their white colour.
- Pack in polythene to keep moisture out. Roots kept for planting are dug later, in March or April, and stored in sand or sawdust.
The drying loss is large. ICAR gives 2 to 3 tonnes of fresh root per hectare, which becomes 0.4 to 0.6 tonnes of dry peeled root: one-fifth of the fresh weight. The FAO paper says "nearly 20%" remains after peeling and drying, which matches.
| Fact | What the sources say | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Botanical name | Chlorophytum borivilianum Santapau & Fernandes | ICAR; University of Jammu |
| Family | Liliaceae in older literature; Asparagaceae in current classification | ICAR, Indian Forester; University of Jammu |
| Part used | Fasciculated tuberous roots, peeled and dried | ICAR |
| Wild range | Hilly areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra | ICAR |
| Planting and harvest | With the first monsoon rain; dug November to January | ICAR; FAO |
| Dry yield | 0.4 to 0.6 t/ha from 2 to 3 t/ha fresh | ICAR |
| Main constituents | Saponins 2 to 17 per cent; carbohydrates 42, fibre 34, protein 8.9 per cent | ICAR |
What does safed musli contain?
Mostly carbohydrate and fibre, with a variable fraction of saponins that the trade treats as the marker of quality. ICAR's table of constituents gives carbohydrates 42 per cent, fibre 34 per cent, protein 8.9 per cent and saponins 2 to 17 per cent, and names chlorophytoside A as the principal saponin glycoside. A saponin range as wide as 2 to 17 per cent means two bags of dry root can differ more than eightfold on the one constituent buyers care about, which is one reason adulteration matters.
What does the research on safed musli actually show?
Very little in people. A search of PubMed Central on 22 October 2026 for articles with Chlorophytum borivilianum in the title returned 28 papers. Most are rat, mouse, cell or plant-biology studies. Two are trials of the herb on its own in people, and both are small.
The larger is a 2019 pilot trial in the Indian Journal of Pharmacology: 60 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 45 in Mumbai, randomised to root powder or maize-starch placebo for 60 days and measured on a six-minute walk, a cycle ergometer and a handgrip test. The treated group walked and cycled further by day 60; handgrip did not differ from placebo. It was a pilot, with no sample-size calculation, and the authors note that very few clinical studies of the herb exist.
The other is a 2013 trial in Ayu: 30 healthy men aged 20 to 40, 15 per group, given a water extract of the root or barley powder for 12 weeks, with semen parameters and serum testosterone as endpoints. The abstract reports improvement in the semen parameters against placebo. On testosterone the paper contradicts itself: the results call the change significant and the conclusion says a significant effect was not observed, and the authors note that nearly all volunteers had normal levels to begin with. Fifteen men per group cannot settle any of this.
The Khanam review put it plainly: previous pharmacological investigations show a "lack of substantial scientific evidences" and "do not stand the test of critical assessment", and the studies on toxicity, safety and quality "are inadequate". Beyond those two small trials, anything you read about what safed musli does for stamina, fertility or hormones is a rat study, a tradition, or a seller. If you take any medicine or have a condition, talk to your doctor before adding it; our guide to shilajit safety and interactions applies the same caution to blends that contain it.
How is safed musli used traditionally, and where does it appear in blends?
In Ayurveda it is a tonic root, and that is a description of tradition, not a finding. The Khanam review places it in the Vajikaran Rasayana group of rejuvenating preparations and records that it is "largely used as ethnic medicine by local healers of indigenous communities of India". The market names "white gold" and "divya aushad" that Khanam and ICAR report are the price talking, not the pharmacology.
Because it is classed as a tonic, safed musli turns up in multi-herb formulations alongside ashwagandha, shatavari and gokhru. Himdhara's Shilajit Gold Resin is one such blend: Himalayan shilajit purified with triphala and combined with Ashwagandha, Safed Musli, Shatavari, Gokhru and gold ash, made for Himdhara by Sukhayubhava Pharmaceutical. The manufacturer's certificate for batch 2658, on the lab reports page, records that each herb complied with the label. That tells you the root is in the jar; it says nothing about what the blend does, and nothing in this article should be read as if it did. Our guide to how to identify pure shilajit covers the resin itself, and the product page lists the ingredients.
The short version
Safed musli is the peeled, dried tuberous root of Chlorophytum borivilianum, a small herb of the hill forests of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, now grown as a monsoon crop because wild digging, which removes the whole plant, put it on the Botanical Survey of India's endangered list in 1988. It is planted with the first rains, dug from November to January, and five parts of fresh root dry to one part of white peeled root. The roots are mostly carbohydrate and fibre with 2 to 17 per cent saponins, and several Chlorophytum species are sold under the one name. Human evidence amounts to two small trials, and the main review calls the research inadequate. Follow your doctor's advice before taking it in any form.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Khadke GN, Chinapolaiah A, Bagul S, Sharma S, Das M (2023). Production technology of safed musli. Indian Horticulture, ICAR.
- Biswas RN, Temburnikar SO (n.d.). Safed Musli (Chlorophytum Species) - A Wonder Drug in the Tropical Zone. FAO document repository.
- Khanam Z, Singh O, Singh R, Bhat IU (2013). Safed musli (Chlorophytum borivilianum): a review of its botany, ethnopharmacology and phytochemistry. Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
- Tripathi N, Saini N, Nair P, Tiwari S (2012). Lack of genetic diversity of a critically endangered important medicinal plant Chlorophytum borivilianum in Central India revealed by AFLP markers. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants.
- Tripathi RK, Dethe PD, Bhojne SK, Raut AA, Rege NN (2019). A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind comparative pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of Chlorophytum borivilianum on physical performance. Indian Journal of Pharmacology.