Highest Medicinal Property of Calendula Seed
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Irene
Posted on: June 03, 2010

We would like to purchase seed to cover almost 2 acres. I am inquiring about your seed called CALYPSO style number S1630-200. We would need approx. 10,000 seeds to be sent to Stanstead. Quebec. Please let me know which of the seeds or sorts will yeild the highest amount of medicinal properties. ie: saponins, etc... Should we be looking at Calypso, or do you recommend another sort. Please advise as soon as possible because we would like to purchase seeds.

Besides the basic calendula variety, we sell two varieties of importance for their medicinal properties. The European variety, ‘Erfurter Orangefarbige’ is the standard for the medicinal herbs industry. However, there is increasing interest in compounds known to have anti-inflammatory properties, such as the faradiol triterpenoids. The ‘Calypso Orange’ variety was shown to be highest in these compounds. But it has the drawback that it is a smaller plant with smaller potential yields. Which of these two varieties is best for you may depend on your application. In cases like this where there are several varieties to choose from, it is often worthwhile to try more than one and evaluate for yourself which is the better one for your application.

I should point out that 10,000 seeds is inadequate for 2 acres. For direct sowing you need 3-9 kg per hectare or about 1-3 kg per acre. For sowing in plugs you need 1 kg per hectare or about 400 grams per acre. There are about 150 calendula seeds per gram.

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