Agro‐morphological and phenotypic variability of sweet basil genotypes for breeding purposes

Abstract

AbstractThe genus Ocimum is very complicated due to the presence of huge morphological variability along with genetic diversity. Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) has pharmacological properties to treat headaches, coughs, diarrhea, constipation, warts, worms, and kidney malfunction and potential as a therapeutic agent in treating various age‐related diseases. In this study, a total of 74 genotypes were used in 2017 and 61 genotypes were adapted. Among the 61 genotypes, 50 genotypes were sown in 2018. The present investigation composed of basil genotypes was undertaken to characterize the genotypes based on morphological and phenological features, herbs, and essential oil yield of genotypes. A wide range of variations for traits like days to first cutting (56.92–101.6 d), plant height (13.67–71.90 cm), branch number (3.28–19.43 plant−1), fresh herb yields (12.94–274.11 g plant−1), and essential oil yield (0.04–1.71%) were observed and can be useful for breeding purposes. PI 652070 and PI 296391 were found superior with the highest herbs yield as compared with other genotypes. Overall, PI 358469 and Ames 32309 genotypes exhibited the highest essential oil content. A constellation analysis was conducted to investigate the genetic diversity of basil genotypes. According to the constellation plot analysis, 46 basil genotypes and four cultivars were evaluated according to morphological, yield, and International Association for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV) properties, and most of the basil genotypes and one cultivar (Midnight) were located in the same group. As a result of the constellation plot analysis, Moonlight and Dino cultivars were located in the same group with PI 141198 (Maryland, USA) and genotypes originated from Georgia, Iran, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Hungary located in the same main group. Other genotypes of the same origin were found in a different main group.