Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(7): 600-606 600 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.607.073 Influence of Nitrogen and Sulphur on Yield and Quality Parameters of Spineless Safflower under Irrigated Conditions J.K. Revanth Nathan * , A. Madhavi Lata, B. Joseph and A. Madhavi Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is an important annual industrial crop. The stem, leaves, seeds and flowers are used as vegetable and industrial oil, bird feed, forage plant, medicinal purpose and for its colourful petals used as food colouring, flavouring agent and preparing textile dyes (Dordas and Sioulos, 2008). Safflower oil preferred for its higher poly unsaturated fatty acid (78% linoleic acid) which reduces blood cholesterol level (Belgin et al., 2007) also contains tocopherols, known to have antioxidant effect and high vitamin E content. For this reason, safflower oil is used in the diets of patients with cardiovascular disease, and bears great importance for its anti-cholesterol effect (Pongracz et al., 1995; Arslan et al., 2003). India is a major safflower growing country and contributes 60 per cent of the total world production. India ranks first in area and production of safflower grown across the world. In India, safflower is grown in an area of 1, 78, 400 ha with a production of 1.453 lakh tonnes and productivity of 498 kg ha -1 (Indiastat, 2012). But, the productivity of safflower is very low as the crop is cultivated under nutrient stress environment conditions. This necessitates rational application of these elements as they have become limiting factor for obtaining higher yields in safflower. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 7 (2017) pp. 600-606 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com A field experiment was conducted during Rabi, 2014 at college farm, college of agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad to realize the optimal dose of nitrogen and sulphur in safflower and to evaluate the effect of levels of nitrogen and sulphur on yield and quality parameters of safflower. The experiment was carried out with three nitrogen levels 0, 40 and 60 kg N ha -1 and three sulphur levels 0, 25 and 45 kg S ha -1 were laid out in randomized block design with factorial concept and replicated thrice. With respect to nitrogen levels, Viz. number of capitula plant -1 (26.7), number of seeds capitulum -1 (24.0), weight of capitulum plant -1 (37.5 g), 100 seed weight (4.4 g), oil content (29.3 %) oil yield (427 kg ha -1 ) and protein content (16.0 %) were recorded highest with 60 kg N ha -1 and it was significantly superior than 40 kg N ha -1 and 0 kg N ha -1 . Among sulphur levels, significantly highest yield parameters viz. number of capitula plant -1 (25.7), number of seeds capitulum -1 (22.6), weight of capitulum (35.1 g plant -1 ), 100 seed weight (4.1 g), oil content (31.1 %) oil yield (448 kg ha -1 ) and protein content (15.0 %) were recorded with 45 kg S ha -1 over 25kg S ha -1 and 0 kg S ha -1 . Keywords Yield parameters, Quality, Nitrogen levels, Sulphur levels. Accepted: 14 June 2017 Available Online: 10 July 2017 Article Info