Selection for Oil Content in East Indian Lemongrass

Abstract

AbstractThe response of oil content to phenotypic selection was studied in a population of lemongrass raised from seeds of a clonally propagated variety SD‐68. During November‐December 1982, 400 plants were evaluated for oil content. Five per cent of the evaluated plants were selected for high and low oil content and were separately intermated in isolated polycross (PC) blocks in November 1983‐February 1984. The populations derived from high and low oil PC blocks were evaluated, along with the unselected parental population and OD‐19, a variety used as a local check, in a randomized complete block design, during October 1984, January and May 1985 for leaf yield, oil content and citral content in oil. The high oil PC population had a significantly higher oil content than the unselected parental population and the local check OD‐19, during all the three seasons. The low oil PC population had a significantly lower oil content than the unselected parental population in January and May 1985. Over seasons, the high oil PC population had 0.15 per cent higher oil content than the unselected parent population. Realized heritabilities for high and low oil content were 0.52 and 0.50, respectively. No significant differences were observed between the different populations for leaf yield in all the three seasons and for citral content in October 1984. In January and May 1985, the differences in citral content were not related to the differences in oil content.