Variability in antioxidant capacity and some mineral nutrients among ninety-one Indian accessions of bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.

Abstract

Bottle gourd is amongst the widely grown yet under-researched cucurbit vegetable in India and sub-Saharan Africa. The fresh immature leaves, fruit and seed are used for food and medicinal purposes, as rootstock for watermelon. Despite the economic and culinary importance, availability of wide variation in Africa and India, the bottle gourd genetic resources remains under-utilized, particularly with respect to harnessing the nutritional quality. In the present study, we evaluated 91 bottle gourd accessions from India and identified promising bottle gourd accessions for quality traits such as total phenol content, total antioxidant capacity, magnesium, iron, zinc and copper contents. High genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficient of variation (>20%) were recorded for all the biochemical traits and mineral nutrients. High heritability (h2) with high genetic advance was recorded for phenol content (99.00/62.76%) and antioxidant activity (99.71/62.58%) whereas high heritability (h2) with low genetic advance was recorded for all the mineral nutrients except magnesium (98.79/49.84%). Simple correlation coefficients among the different traits revealed a highly significant positive association of total phenol content with antioxidant activity, magnesium, iron and zinc content. Euclidian cluster analysis grouped 91 accessions into 12 clusters based on Ward's distance. Eigen value from principal component analysis depicted the first two components accounted for 62.43 cumulative percent of total variation which signifies a high degree of correlation between the analyzed traits. The promising accessions IC-0336825, IC-0385814, IC-0418246 and IC-0284925 and check cultivar Pusa Santusthi for phenol content, antioxidant activity and mineral nutrients (Mg, Fe, Zn and Cu) may be used as donors in the quality breeding program in bottle gourd. The implication of identified promising bottle gourd accessions for development of new cultivars in bottle gourd is discussed.