ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC VARIABILITY AND CHARACTER ASSOCIATION STUDIES IN Aloe (Aloe barbadensis Mill.) FOR AGRO - BOTANICAL AND QUALITY TRAITS
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Date
2004
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AAU, Anand
Abstract
Aloe (Aloe barbadensis Mill.), one of the priority medicinal plants of commercial importance in India, belongs to the family Liliaceae. Dry weight of juice and aloin content (gm/100 gm dry exudate) are important economic traits of this plant. These traits are manifestations of many contributing characters. As the work on genetics of these traits is scarce in the literature, the present investigation was undertaken. Information was generated on variability, character associations as well as direct and indirect effects of different characters on these economic parameters of Aloe. The field experiment was conducted during January-2002 to February-2003 at the experimental farm of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Project, Anand Agricultural University, Anand. The experimental material (19 months old) comprised of 23 genotypes. The evaluations were made in completely randomized design. Observations were recorded on randomly selected five plants and each plant was treated as single repeat. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all 35 characters studied suggesting presence of good deal of variability in the experimental material. The characters studied were length of inflorescence, number of flowers per inflorescence, density of flowers in an inflorescence, per cent pollen fertility, number of capsules per inflorescence, number of seeds per inflorescence, number of seeds per capsule, per cent seed germination, leaf length, leaf breadth, leaf thickness at the base, number of leaves per plant, weight of single leaf, weight of gel, volume of gel, dry gel content (gm/100 ml juice), fresh weight of juice, dry weight of juice, moisture per cent in juice, fresh weight of exudate, dry weight of exudate, moisture per cent in exudate, dry exudate content (gm/100 ml exudate), cold extracted gel (gm/100 ml juice), cold extracted gel (gm/100 gm gel powder), hot extracted gel (gm/100 ml juice), hot extracted gel (gm/100 gm gel powder), aloin content (gm/100 gm fresh exudate), aloin content (gm/100 gm dry exudate), aloin content (gm/100 gm fresh juice), aloin content (gm/100 gm gel powder), barbaloin content (gm/100 gm fresh exudate), barbaloin content (gm/100 gm dry exudate), barbaloin content (gm/100 gm fresh juice) and barbaloin content (gm/100 gm gel powder). Characters, length of inflorescence, number of flowers per inflorescence, density of flowers, per cent pollen fertility, number of seeds per inflorescence, per cent seed germination, weight of leaf, weight of gel, volume of gel, fresh weight of juice, dry weight of juice, fresh weight of exudate, dry weight of exudate, cold and hot extracted gel in juice, cold and hot extracted gel in powder showed predominance of genotypic variance and also showed high magnitude of broad sense heritability coupled with high genetic advance. Hence, it is concluded that experimental material possessed potential for improvement in these traits. Correlation matrix revealed that all character paired were positively and significantly correlated with each other both at genotypic and phenotypic levels but for number of flowers per inflorescence and number of leaves per plant which were negatively correlated. Characters, length of inflorescence, number of flowers per inflorescence, leaf length, leaf breadth, leaf thickness at the base, weight of single leaf, weight of gel and fresh weight of juice showed their highly significant and high magnitude positive association with both the economic parameters viz., dry weight of juice and aloin content (gm/100 gm dry exudate). Hence, based on high magnitude correlation coefficient with economically important characters, it could be concluded that certain inflorescence and leaf characters could be exploited for improvement in this crop. Path analyses revealed that leaf thickness at the base and weight of gel had positive direct effect on both the economic parameters i.e. dry weight of juice and aloin content (gm/100 gm dry exudate). Other characters, length of inflorescence, number of flowers per inflorescence, leaf length, leaf breadth, weight of single leaf and fresh weight of juice had direct but negative effect on these economic traits. Though their correlation with economic traits was positive and significant, their direct and indirect effect on both the economic parameters was variable. In general, characters leaf thickness at the base and weight of gel, with high magnitude of direct effects may be helpful to select the elite genotypes for improvement in these two economic traits i.e. selection could be based on visibly assessable character leaf thickness at the base and later results could be confirmed in laboratory, testing for gel weight. Based on these analyses and mean values, eight elite genotypes viz., IC-112522, IC-112527, KM 12535, IC-112528, KM 11269, KM 12531, Bitter rayan and Sweet rayan were identified for further use in crop improvement programme.
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PLANT BREEDING AND GENETICS, AGRICULTURE, ASSESSMENT