Shatavari Extract (Asparagus racemosus)

Shatavari is the dried tuberous root of Asparagus racemosus Willd. (Asparagaceae), among the most heavily traded botanicals in the Indian herbal sector and the plant behind classical preparations such as Shatavari Kalpa and Shatavari Ghrita. We supply it as a hydro-alcoholic extract: milled root is extracted, vacuum-concentrated and spray-dried to a free-flowing powder, so a fixed weight of the root's characteristic saponin fraction arrives in every kilogram. Dried root powder cannot offer that, because saponin content in the raw root moves with age at harvest, growing region and season. The trade marker is total saponins, quoted at 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 per cent. Most of that volume is measured gravimetrically, which is fast and inexpensive but reports a crude fraction rather than a defined molecule. Buyers running tighter specifications increasingly ask instead for UV-Vis (vanillin–sulphuric acid reagent, read at 540 nm) or for HPLC against a shatavarin reference standard, with shatavarin IV as the usual named marker. The three methods are not interchangeable and a percentage quoted without its method means very little, so name the method in your enquiry and we will quote against it; the certificate of analysis always states which was used. Identity is confirmed by TLC/HPTLC against authenticated reference material, and native ratio extracts at 4:1 and 10:1 are available where a formulator would rather work from an unstandardised base. Commercial supply is essentially all Indian, with Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh the main growing belts and cultivated roots — lifted after two to three years — steadily displacing wild collection; a cultivation-origin declaration is available on request where a buyer's own sourcing policy requires one. Nothing in the process introduces milk, egg, fish, crustacean, soy, gluten, peanut or tree-nut material, and there is no bovine, porcine or marine input at any stage, so the extract suits vegan and vegetarian formulations. It is noticeably hygroscopic, a consequence of the mucilage in the root, so drums should be resealed promptly and held below 25 °C at under 65 per cent relative humidity.