Psyllium Husk (Isabgol)
India supplies the overwhelming majority of the world's psyllium, and it moves through the Unjha trade in North Gujarat off a crop grown across northern Gujarat and western Rajasthan. This is the most standardised line we carry: purity and swelling index are numbers your own laboratory can reproduce on arrival, which means there is nowhere for a supplier to hide — including us.
Four numbers decide the deal — and each has a standard way of being made to look better than it is.
The psyllium crop itself is largely common property: most exporters buy off the same mandis and the same separation plants. What actually differs between offers is discipline on these four figures. We have set out how each one gets fudged, because you are going to verify them on arrival anyway.
99% down to industrial, plus seed and powder
Grade in psyllium means one thing: how completely the husk has been separated from the seed and the broken material. Higher purity means more separation passes, more loss, higher cost per kilo — and a higher swelling index, because it is the husk that swells.
Swelling index figures are minimums we will contract to at each grade by the pharmacopoeial method. Lots frequently test above them; the certificate carries the actual result for your lot, not the floor.
The panel we run on every husk lot
Where you name USP-NF or the European Pharmacopoeia as your basis, we quote and certify against that monograph rather than against a house specification. Say which one at enquiry stage — the elemental-impurity and microbial limits differ, and so does the price.
Bulk export formats
What is the real difference between 98% and 99% husk?
One more separation pass, a lower yield at the plant, and a higher swelling index — because it is the husk that swells and the residual seed that does not. For most nutraceutical and food-fibre applications 98% is the correct buy and 99% is money spent on a number nobody downstream will notice. Where you are formulating against USP-NF or EP, or supplying a pharmaceutical customer who audits you, 99% is worth the premium.
Why do swelling-index numbers vary so much between suppliers?
Because the figure is protocol-dependent and many offers do not name the protocol. Volume read at different intervals, different water quality, different sample preparation and different vessel geometry all move the result. A swelling index quoted without its method is not comparable to one quoted with it. We report by the USP-NF or EP method and print which one on the certificate, so the number can be reproduced in your own laboratory.
Can you supply against the USP or EP monograph?
Yes — tell us which one at enquiry stage rather than after pricing. The elemental-impurity limits, microbial limits and identification requirements differ between them, and between both and a general house specification, so the monograph you name changes what we buy and what the lot costs.
Is Salmonella genuinely a concern on psyllium?
Yes. It is a field-harvested, low-moisture commodity that has featured in product recalls in more than one market, and it frequently goes into sachets and capsules that ship with no kill step after filling. We test to absence in 25 g by culture and print the method and sample size, and where your specification needs a lower plate count we quote heat-treated lots. What we will not do is reach for ethylene oxide, which solves the microbiology and creates a banned residue instead.
Should I buy bagged or baled?
Baled, if your receiving warehouse can break bales. Loose husk flake in 25 kg bags puts roughly 7 to 9 MT in a 20-ft container; compressed bales put roughly 11 to 13 MT in the same box. On a long lane that is a bigger reduction in landed cost per kilo than any price concession we could realistically make on the goods. Ask us to quote both and compare on landed cost, not on FOB.
If everyone buys from the same Unjha trade, why buy from you?
On this line we will not pretend the crop is proprietary — it is not, and a supplier telling you otherwise is worth less trust, not more. What differs between exporters is lot selection, whether moisture is checked at load-out or accepted from the mill, whether the microbial panel is genuinely run or copied forward from a previous lot, and whether the container leaves on the date the proforma promised. On a commodity this standardised, that is the entire difference — and all four of those are things you can hold us to on the paperwork.
250 g of the purity grade you are considering, with the lot COA showing the swelling index and the method used. This is a commodity you can verify in your own lab in a morning — please do.
Request sample →On husk, compression can move 11–13 MT into a 20-ft box instead of 7–9. If your warehouse can break bales, it is usually worth more than any price concession we could offer on the goods themselves.
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