Diversity Studty in Garlic for Nutritional Value and Bio-functionality

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important bulb vegetable. Sexual propagation in cultivated garlic is not feasible and this is the major challenge faced in garlic improvement programme. Improvement in garlic largely depends upon the selection of new variants followed by their asexual propagation. andGarlic is regarded as a functional food and owes its antioxidant properties to these flavonoid and phenolic compounds. The phenolic and flavonoid contents in garlic vary to some extent with agronomic and environmental factors but genotype accounts for the primary factor that contributes towards this variation. Hence, twenty five genotypes of garlic were characterised for polyphenolic content and antioxidant properties and diversity analysis was worked out. The work was carried out in the Department of Horticulture (Vegetable and Floriculture), Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design and recommended package of practice was followed for raising the crop. The results clearly indicated highly significant variations among genotypes of garlic which also showed marked divergence for all the biochemical parameters namely, TSS, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, total phenolic content, total flavonoids and antioxidant capacity, RSA, MCA, nitrogen%, phosphorous%, potassium%, sulphur%. Cluster analysis of genotypes showed that all the genotypes were grouped into six clusters. Cluster I consisted a maximum number of genotypes and Cluster VI contained a minimum number of genotypes. The highest intra-cluster distance was recorded for cluster VI lowest intra-cluster distance was recorded for cluster V. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster V and indicating wider genetic diversity among the genotypes between these groups. Cluster VI had the highest mean value for the parameters like total phenol content (1097.53), antioxidant capacity (10.15), radical scavenging activities (48.64), Phosphorous% (0.61), and Sulphur % (8.39). The contribution towards divergence due to the biochemical parameters like Flavonoid content (19.67), Antioxidant activity (13), protein% (10), potassium% (9.33), nitrogen% (9), Phosphorous% (8.67), MCA (8.67) and RSA (7.67) were considerably high.