Assessment of Morphological Characterization and Genetic Variability of Mandukaparni (Centella asiatica L.) Accessions

Abstract

Centella asiatica L., commonly known as Indian pennywort is one of the chief herbs having a lot of medicinal properties and is used extensively both in traditional and modern medicine. However, the unrestricted exploitation coupled with the limited cultivation has threatened their survival and is now included in the list of endangered species. In the present study, fifteen accessions of Centella asiatica have been assessed for the morphological characterization and genetic variability to identify superior genotypes. Genetic variability parameters (phenotypic coefficient of variation, genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability, and the genetic advance) have been evaluated using ANOVA for twelve morphological characters such as shoot length, leaf length, leaf width, rosette diameter, petiole length, fresh leaf weight, and dry leaf weight, etc. Genetic divergence using D2 analysis has been performed by dividing the accessions into five clusters based on the morphological characters. The results showed that the maximum intra-cluster distance has been found in cluster IV (24.45) followed by cluster I (22.13) and cluster III (21.67), whereas the maximum inter-cluster distance has been found between clusters IV and III (40.45) followed by cluster V and IV (36.81). Thus, the germplasm which includes clusters III and IV can be used in crop improvement using breeding programs.