A medicinally important Rice:

---NAVARA or NJAVARA variety

“Navara is a medicinal rice variety and its cultivation is almost extinct. Many reasons such

as non-availability of pure seeds, low yield and high production cost are attributed for this.

The speciality is that this is the only organically grown navara rice farm in the region,”

--- Mr. P. Narayanan Unni

Introduction

• Rice variety cultivated in Kerala (i.e. endemic).

• Has low yields, high cost and its present use is limited to ayurvedic

preparations/treatments only.

• Njavara is an upland crop and cultivated in a water-stressed environment.

• Njavara paddy is found to be moderately resistant to pests and disease.

• GI registered

Components in Navara

• Dehusked Njavara rice (red in colour) consisted of 73% carbohydrates, 9.5%

protein, 2.5% fat, 1.4% ash and 1628 kJ.

• have antioxidants and polyphenols, fibers, minerals and vitamins and are rich in

minerals iron and zinc.

• Flavonoid such as tricin (4′,5,7‐trihydroxy‐3′,5′‐dimethoxyflavone).

• Oryzanol, phenolic, proanthocyanidin and phytate.

Medicinal effects of Njavara

• Anti-oxidant activity and Anti-inflammatory effect.

• anti-viral, immunomodulatory, antimutagenic, anti-cancer effects etc.

• build immunity against common ailments especially in the monsoon season.

• beneficial for the circulatory, respiratory and digestive systems, according to Ayurveda.

• Used for the treatment of arthritis, cervical spondylitis, muscle wasting, skin diseases and

certain neurological problems.

• In panchakarma therapy.

Future aspects• As it is almost extinct rice variety (mainly because of use of hybrid), so improvement is needed in

the area of cultivation. There is an urgent need to preserve these germplasms.

• The Navara gene associated with pest & diseases resistance is to be identified, so that other

varieties can also be improved.

• The mechanism of various medicinal effects of navara rice is unknown till now.

• The Navara with other food components like milk, can also be tested for better food

compositions.

• The navara may contain the bioactive compound which can be used in drug delivery system.

• The treatment of Navara with gamma-irradiation may affect the structure of components of

Navara rice which in turn can be explored for better food usage.

References

• G. Deepa a, Vasudeva Singh b, K. Akhilender Naidu; Nutrient composition and physicochemical properties of Indian medicinal rice – Njavara; Food Chemistry 106 (2008) 165–171

• V. Shalini et al; Molecular mechanisms of anti-inflammatory action of theflavonoid, tricin from Njavara rice (Oryza sativa L.) in human peripheralblood mononuclear cells: Possible role in the inflammatory signaling;International Immunopharmacology 14 (2012) 32–38

• Reshmi.R1 and Nandini P.V; THERAPEUTIC VALUE OF INDIAN MEDICINALRICE (Oryza Sativa L.) CV. NJAVARA; INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOODAND NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES Vol.2, Iss.1, Jan-Mar 2013.