Jadeja, G. C.Aher, Adhir Raosaheb2018-06-142018-06-142000http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810052766Isabgol {Plantago ovata Fprsk.) is an important medicinal plant. Seed husk is a drug having laxative property. As the information on genetic parameters is meager, an investigation was undertaken to estimate variability, correlations and direct and indirect effects of different characters contributing towards seed yield by path analysis. The experiment was conducted at the farm of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Project, Gujarat Agricultural University, Anand Campus, Anand during 1998-99 Rabi season. The experimental material comprised 64 Isabgol genotypes. The experiment was conducted in 8x8 simple lattice design with two replications. Out of sixteen characters studied, eleven characters viz., days :o 50% flowering, days required to complete anthesis, days to maturity, average length of spike, average plant height, seed yield per plant, number of seeds per spike, 1000 seed weight, harvest index, swelling factor and husk yield per plant showed significant variation among genotypes, while five characters, nam.ely average number of leaves per plant, number of flowers per spike, number of tillers at harvestir.g stage, effective spikes per plant and husk content showed non-significant differences. The five characters viz., days to 50% flowering, seed yield per plant, 1000 seed weight, swelling factor and husk yield per plant showed high genotypic variance as well as high heritability. The plant height also showed high genetic advance. The higher estimates of GCV were obtained for seed yield per plant, husk yield per plant, number of leaves per plant and effective spikes per plant. The characters like seed yield per plant and husk yield per plant exhibited high heritability and high expected genetic advance as per cent of mean, indicating better scope for improvement of characters by effective selection programme. The estimates of correlation coefficient revealed that seed yield per plant showed perfect positive association with husk yield at genotypic level. It also showed positive significant association with all the chaiacters except days to 50% flowering and days to maturity. Days to maturity showed negative correlation with seed yield. On overall basis, the correlation study indicated that three characters, namely plant height, 1000 seed weight and number of seeds per spike were most important characters for increasing seed yield, in turn increasing the husk yield. According to path analysis, the characters like husk yield per plant, harvest index and number of seeds per spike were hiving positive direct effect as well as significant positive association with seed yieM, while days to maturity were having negative direct effect and negative significant association with seed yield. In general, husk yield per plant, harvest index and number of seeds per spike having high direct effects arid plant height and length of spike with indirect effects may be helpful in selecting the elite genotypes for further treeding programme. Based on mean performance thirteen elite genotypes viz., RJ-129 (V5), MSB-2 (V7), MSB-8 (V8), JI- 28 (V29), JI-18 (V31), JI-6 (V32), FR-138 (V33), DRP-72 (V46), G.I.I (V47), DRP-46- 187 (V50), FR-185 (V55), MB-29 (V59) and DPP-73 (V62) were identified for further use.enPLANT BREEDING AND GENETICS, AGRICULTUREA STUDYThesis