Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is the root of Withania somnifera, a short woody shrub of the nightshade family grown as an annual crop across the drier parts of India and cultivated commercially elsewhere. The dried root is a foundational material in Ayurvedic practice and is now one of the largest single botanicals in the global dietary supplement trade, sold as cut and sifted root, as milled powder and, in the largest volumes by value, as standardised extract sold on its withanolide content. Buyers use it in capsules, tablets, powders, functional beverages and traditional formulations. A separate and smaller trade exists in the leaf, which carries a different withanolide profile and is regulated differently in several destination markets.
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Listed ashwagandha markets
Each line is a grade at a delivery point. Open one for its full specification and terms.
Price guarantee on ashwagandha
If a move in the ashwagandha price would hurt you, fix the price now. We agree it today for the months you name, and it holds whatever the market does in between.
| Buying | You use or resell ashwagandha and need to know your cost. We fix your purchase price for the quantity and months you name. |
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| Selling | You grow, produce or hold ashwagandha and need to know your revenue. We fix your sale price ahead of production or shipment. |
| Settlement | Against delivery of the ashwagandha. |
A price is fixed only once a trader confirms it in writing. Request a fixed price.
Caps and floors on ashwagandha
A fixed price binds buyer and seller. A cap or a floor is a guaranteed price on one side only. You pay a fee up front for it, and it is a right, not an obligation: you use it only if the market moves against you.
| Cap | For buyers. A guaranteed maximum price for ashwagandha. If the market is above the cap when you buy, you pay the cap. If it is below, you buy at the market price and let the cap lapse. |
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| Floor | For sellers. A guaranteed minimum price for ashwagandha. If the market is below the floor when you sell, you receive the floor. If it is above, you sell at the market price and let the floor lapse. |
| Fee | Agreed and paid up front. It is the whole cost of the cap or floor, and it is not refunded if the cap or floor goes unused. |
A cap or a floor is in place only once a trader confirms it in writing. Request a cap or a floor.
Grades
Ashwagandha is contracted on the plant part, the extraction route and the withanolide assay together. Root only material, the solvent used and the analytical method behind the withanolide number are the three terms that decide the price, and a contract that omits any of them is not a specification.
Botanical identity as the contracted article
5 grades
| Grade | Definition |
|---|---|
| Withania somnifera (L.) DunalThe commercial article | The binomial is the contract. The common name alone covers material that would not pass a monograph test. |
| Plant partDeclared | Root only, root and leaf, or leaf only. Root only commands the premium and several destination markets restrict leaf material. |
| Root only verificationCertificate of analysis, with the method | High performance liquid chromatography and, where contracted, DNA barcoding to confirm that leaf and stem have not been blended into a root article. |
| Cultivar or chemotypeDeclared where the buyer contracts on it | Selected lines are grown for withanolide yield and they are named on the contract. |
| Wild or cultivatedDeclared | Commercial supply is cultivated. Wild collected material is a separate article and is documented as such. |
Physical form and processing route
8 grades
| Grade | Definition |
|---|---|
| Whole dried rootDeclared | Cleaned, dried root pieces, the traditional article. |
| Cut and sifted rootDeclared, with the cut size | Root cut to a stated screen size for tea and for extraction feedstock. |
| Root powderDeclared, with the mesh | Milled root, commonly contracted at a stated sieve specification. |
| Water extractDeclared, with the ratio and the solvent | Extract produced with water only, the route most traditional and organic buyers require. |
| Hydroalcoholic extractDeclared, with the solvent, the ratio and the residual solvent limit | Extraction with ethanol and water in a stated proportion. It pulls a different withanolide profile than water alone. |
| Extraction ratioDeclared, as native drug to extract | Stated as a ratio such as raw material to finished extract. It sits alongside the assay and neither replaces the other. |
| Carrier or excipientDeclared, with the percentage | Maltodextrin, gum arabic or root powder used to standardise the extract, named and quantified. |
| Particle size and bulk densityMesh or micrometres, and grams per millilitre | Contracted for tabletting and capsule filling behaviour. |
Withanolide assay
7 grades
| Grade | Definition |
|---|---|
| Total withanolidesPercentage by mass, minimum | The headline assay. The contract states the analytical method, because gravimetric and chromatographic results are not interchangeable. |
| Withanolide glycosidesPercentage by mass, minimum | Contracted separately by buyers who specify the glycoside fraction rather than the aglycones. |
| Withaferin APercentage by mass | Reported and, in several destination markets, capped rather than maximised. It is contracted as a ceiling as often as a floor. |
| Withanolide APercentage by mass | A named marker reported on the certificate of analysis. |
| Analytical methodDeclared | High performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection, or mass spectrometric detection, named explicitly with the reference standard used. |
| Chromatographic fingerprintReference chromatogram | Retained with the lot and compared against a reference, which is how leaf blending and spiking are caught. |
| Alkaloid contentPercentage by mass | Reported where the buyer contracts on it, chiefly for traditional preparations. |
Purity and contaminants
9 grades
| Grade | Definition |
|---|---|
| Loss on drying, or moisturePercentage by mass, maximum | Determined by oven drying or by the entrainment method. It governs mould risk in the bag and it is weight the buyer is not paying botanical prices for. |
| Foreign organic matterPercentage by mass, maximum | Soil, stones, stems where stems are not the article, other plant species and any material other than the named part, separated by hand and weighed. |
| Total ashPercentage by mass, maximum | Mineral residue after incineration. |
| Acid-insoluble ashPercentage by mass, maximum | The sand and silica fraction, and the classical measure of how carefully the material was lifted and washed. |
| Heavy metalsMilligrams per kilogram, maximum | Lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, against CXS 193 and the destination limits. |
| Pesticide residuesMilligrams per kilogram, maximum | Multi-residue screen against the destination market limits. Contracted on every lot destined for the European Union, Japan or a certified organic buyer. |
| MycotoxinsMicrograms per kilogram, maximum | Aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2, total aflatoxins and ochratoxin A. Field dried botanicals carry the risk and the destination sets the ceiling. |
| Microbiological limitsColony forming units per gram, maximum, with the pathogen absence criteria | Total aerobic count, yeasts and moulds, bile-tolerant Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Salmonella. |
| Irradiation and sterilisationDeclared | Steam sterilised, ethylene oxide treated, irradiated or untreated. Declared on the contract, because destination markets differ on what they permit. |
Origin, legality and delivery
8 grades
| Grade | Definition |
|---|---|
| Wild collected or cultivatedDeclared | It drives availability, the legality file and, in several of these articles, the marker chemistry. |
| Legality and collection permitDeclared, with the permit reference | Export permit, forest or land access agreement, or community collection agreement, travelling with the lot. |
| CertificationCertificate, with the scheme and the certificate number | Organic, FairWild, Fair for Life, Rainforest Alliance or a private buyer standard, named on the contract when it is contracted. |
| Crop year and harvest dateDeclared | Marker compounds decline with age. The crop year is a price term, not a formality. |
| PackingDeclared | Paper sacks, polypropylene bags, cartons, fibre drums or bulk bags, with the liner and the pallet configuration specified. |
| Sampling planDeclared | How many packages are sampled, by whom, and against which retained reference sample. Field dried botanicals are heterogeneous between bags. |
| Extraction facilityDeclared, with the audit standard | Good manufacturing practice certification for the extraction plant, named on the contract where the material is going into a supplement. |
| Residual solventsParts per million, maximum | Ethanol, methanol and any process solvent, against the pharmacopoeia general chapter. |
Grades outside this list trade on request. Send us the contract specification you work to and we will price against it.
Locations
| Country | Region | We trade it as |
|---|---|---|
| India | Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana | Origin and destination |
| Nepal | The Terai | Origin |
| Pakistan | Sindh and Punjab | Origin |
| Sri Lanka | The dry zone | Origin |
| China | Yunnan and Guangxi | Origin and destination |
| South Africa | Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal | Origin and destination |
| United States | New Jersey, Utah and the supplement manufacturing cluster | Destination |
| Canada | Ontario and British Columbia | Destination |
| Germany | Hamburg and the Rhine-Ruhr extract cluster | Destination |
| Netherlands | Rotterdam and the ingredient cluster | Destination |
| United Kingdom | Felixstowe and the supplement cluster | Destination |
| France | Le Havre and Lyon | Destination |
| Italy | Milan and the nutraceutical cluster | Destination |
| Spain | Barcelona and Valencia | Destination |
| Poland | Gdansk and the contract manufacturing cluster | Destination |
| Switzerland | Basel and the ingredient cluster | Destination |
| Japan | Tokyo and Osaka | Destination |
| South Korea | Seoul and Incheon | Destination |
| Australia | Sydney and Melbourne | Destination |
| Brazil | Sao Paulo | Destination |
| Mexico | Mexico City and Guadalajara | Destination |
| United Arab Emirates | Dubai and Jebel Ali | Destination |
| Turkey | Istanbul | Destination |
| Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City | Destination |
| Indonesia | Jakarta and Surabaya | Destination |
Origins and destinations outside this list trade on request. We are not limited to the locations shown here.
Timing
Harvest is when the plant material is lifted or cut at origin. Arrival is when a shipment from that origin typically lands in a consuming market. The gap between them is drying, cleaning, milling or extraction, laboratory clearance and the voyage.
HarvestArrival
| Origin | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | Window |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | Harvest and arrival | Harvest and arrival | Harvest and arrival | Arrival | Arrival | Harvest | Harvest and arrival | Harvest Nov to Mar, arrival Dec to MayThe root is lifted in the cool dry months after the plant has completed its cycle, chiefly from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Drying, grading and extraction follow, so extract shipments run later than raw root. | |||||
| Nepal | Harvest and arrival | Harvest and arrival | Arrival | Arrival | Harvest | Harvest | Harvest Nov to Feb, arrival Jan to AprLifting follows the Indian pattern, with material moving largely through Indian processors. | ||||||
| Pakistan | Harvest and arrival | Harvest and arrival | Arrival | Arrival | Harvest | Harvest | Harvest Nov to Feb, arrival Jan to AprCool season lifting in Sindh and Punjab. | ||||||
| China | Arrival | Arrival | Arrival | Harvest | Harvest | Harvest and arrival | Harvest Oct to Dec, arrival Dec to MarAutumn lifting in the southern provinces, mostly for domestic processing. | ||||||
| South Africa | Harvest | Harvest | Harvest and arrival | Harvest and arrival | Arrival | Arrival | Harvest May to Aug, arrival Jul to OctSouthern hemisphere lifting in the dry winter months, which puts the crop opposite the Indian cycle. |
Windows outside this pattern trade on request, including carry, forward positions and stock already sitting in a destination warehouse.
Customs, packing and contract terms
Indicative terms for ashwagandha. Tariff classification is the importer’s responsibility and limits change, so confirm both against the destination customs authority and the current regulation before you fix a contract.
- HS heading1211.90 Plants and parts of plants used primarily in pharmacy, including ashwagandha root
- PackingMultiwall paper sacks or PP bags of 20 kg to 25 kg with food grade liner, or fibre drums for powders and extracts. Sieve size, ash and foreign organic matter stated at load.
- Container loading20ft: 8 t to 14 t. Volume limited for whole leaf and root, weight limited for powders and extracts.
- Contract and arbitrationSale on specification with a certificate of analysis, botanical identity confirmed by macroscopic or HPTLC identification. European Herbal Infusions Association quality guidance and the terms of the importing association. Arbitration under ICC rules or at the contract seat.
- Destination limitsEU novel food authorisation under Regulation 2015/2283 for species without a history of consumption before May 1997, the Article 8 list under Regulation 1925/2006, pesticide MRLs under Regulation 396/2005, pyrrolizidine alkaloid limits on herbal infusions and aflatoxin and ochratoxin limits under Regulation 2023/915, and CITES for listed species. US: FDA dietary supplement rules with new dietary ingredient notification.
Common questions
What grades of ashwagandha does SIP Global trade?
We quote 37 published grades of ashwagandha, including Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal - The commercial article, Plant part - Declared, Root only verification - Certificate of analysis, with the method, Cultivar or chemotype - Declared where the buyer contracts on it, Wild or cultivated - Declared and Whole dried root - Declared. Every grade is tied to a delivery point and a settlement route. Grades outside the published list are priced on request.
How is ashwagandha graded?
Ashwagandha is contracted on the plant part, the extraction route and the withanolide assay together. Root only material, the solvent used and the analytical method behind the withanolide number are the three terms that decide the price, and a contract that omits any of them is not a specification. Grading runs on 5 systems: Botanical identity as the contracted article, Physical form and processing route, Withanolide assay, Purity and contaminants and Origin, legality and delivery.
Where does SIP Global trade ashwagandha?
We trade ashwagandha in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, South Africa, United States and Canada and 17 further markets. Origins and destinations outside this list trade on request. We are not limited to the locations shown.
When is ashwagandha harvested and when does it arrive?
Typical windows are India: harvest nov to mar, arrival dec to may; Nepal: harvest nov to feb, arrival jan to apr; Pakistan: harvest nov to feb, arrival jan to apr; China: harvest oct to dec, arrival dec to mar; South Africa: harvest may to aug, arrival jul to oct. Harvest is when the lot is taken at origin, arrival is when a shipment from that origin lands in a consuming market. Windows outside this pattern, including carry, trade on request.
What is the HS code for ashwagandha?
Ashwagandha is normally classified under HS 1211.90 (plants and parts of plants used primarily in pharmacy, including ashwagandha root). The heading follows the form the goods are in at the border, and national tariffs extend it beyond six digits, so confirm the full line with the destination customs authority before you fix a contract.
Can I fix a ashwagandha price ahead?
Yes. SIP Global fixes a ashwagandha price ahead for buyers and for sellers, as a price guarantee. Send the grade, the quantity and the months you need covered. We settle against delivery, and a price is fixed only once a trader confirms it in writing.
How do I get a price for ashwagandha?
Send the grade, the origin and the delivery window to SIP Global. That is enough for a trader to come back with a level and a settlement route. 4 listed ashwagandha markets are published on this page, each with its full specification and terms. We buy and sell the physical cargo, prompt to long dated.
Standards and data sources
The grading language on this sheet follows published standards. Trade volumes and tariff lines are public record. Verify anything here against the source.
- Codex Alimentarius (opens in new tab)FAO and WHO food standards
- UN Comtrade (opens in new tab)Official international trade statistics by HS code
- ITC Trade Map (opens in new tab)Bilateral trade flows and tariff data
- FAOSTAT (opens in new tab)FAO production and trade series for agricultural commodities