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Gulal made from ‘Kachnar flowers’ to mark Ram Lalla’s Holi this year
“We have developed a skin-friendly herbal gulal from flowers of ‘Ayodhya state tree’ to be offered to Ram Lalla on this Holi,” said Ajit Kumar Shasany, director, CSIR-NBRI.
The scientists of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI), have crafted a special herbal gulal to celebrate Ram Lalla’s Holi in Ayodhya this year.
“We have developed a skin-friendly herbal gulal from flowers of ‘Ayodhya state tree’ to be offered to Ram Lalla on this Holi,” said Ajit Kumar Shasany, director, CSIR-NBRI.
“Kachnar was considered the state tree of Ayodhya in Treta Yuga, and it has been used as a well-established medicine in our Ayurvedic system of medicine. Our scientists have developed this herbal gulal, especially for Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya,” he said.
“This time we have developed two herbal gulals in different fragrances. One is with Kachnar flowers and the other from flowers offered at Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur,” he said while gifting both the gulals to chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday.
“The gulal from flowers of Kachnar is developed in a lavender fragrance while the gulal from flowers offered at Gorakhnath temple is developed in a sandalwood fragrance,” he said.
“The initiative will provide more opportunities to start-ups and entrepreneurs while generating employment both within Uttar Pradesh as well as across the country,” said chief minister Yogi Adityanath while lauding the institute’s effort.
Shasany said the institute had already prepared plant based herbal gulal from various flowers including Marigold, Rose, Hibiscus, Jasmine, and others. However, the institute has this time tried making gulal using two flowers with both medicinal and cultural significance. Kachnar has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal properties, he said.
He said these herbal gulals are not bright in colours as they do not contain harmful chemicals like lead, chromium and nickel. “The colours extracted from flowers are mixed with natural ingredients to form a powder that can easily be wiped off the skin. The powder provides a synergistic mixture of coloured dry powder which has good sticking capacity to skin and can be easily removed by soft mop,” he said.
Technology transferred for mass production
Herbal gulal technology has been transferred to many companies and start-ups for better availability of the eco-friendly gulal in the market. “One of the companies based in Chhattisgarh selling the NBRI developed herbal gulal with a brand name Shri Ganesha. It is easily available in all leading departmental stores in Lucknow and other cities of North India. This product is also being sold on amazon by various sellers. One can identify the original product with the logo branding of CSIR-NBRI on the box,” said the institute.
How to identify synthetic gulals
While talking about the chemical gulal presently available in the market, Dr. Shasany said these are toxic as they contain hazardous chemicals which can cause allergies, irritation & serious problems to skin and eyes. He added that the best way to identify the herbal gulal is that, unlike the other gulal it will not leave the fast colour in the hands.
