Genetic Diversity Analysis of Forty-Five Indian Turmeric (Curcuma Longa L.) Genotypes Based on Some Agronomic and Biochemical Characters

Turmeric is a rhizomatous perennial herb belongs to the Zingiberaceae family and native to South East Asia. Curcumin, which belongs to the family of natural diaryl heptanoids, is the major pigment present in rhizomes of turmeric. It is useful to cure many diseases of blood such as inflammations, ozoena, dyspepsia, ulcer, elephantiasis and sprains. The present study was conducted to estimate the genetic variability studies of turmeric. The experimental findings proved that curcumin content was environmentally least affected and it was a genetic character. GCV, PCV, h² and GAM were highest for average curcumin content. Phenotypic coefficient of variation was more than genotypic coefficient of variation for all characters which indicated possibility of obtaining a very high selection response. High heritability was found for most of the character except iron content (53.76), tiller number (34.64) and leaf number (33.92). High heritability for different character indicated that large proportion of phenotypic variance was attributed to genotypic variance and therefore selection should be made for these characters on the basis of phenotypic expression. Plant height (0.847) and iron content (0.465) exhibited significantly positive direct effect on curcumin whereas iron content contributed maximum (64.14%) towards genetic divergence. Leaf length contributed more positively with three principle components to the total variation. High heritability along with high genetic advance mean percentage was observed for all characters except iron content, leaf number, leaf breadth, leaf length and tiller number which suggested a wide scope for improvement through selection of these characters.