Production Of Cumin Research Articles

Chemotypes and morpho-physiological characters affecting essential oil yield in Iranian cumin landraces

The cumin essential oil is used in the food and pharmaceutical industry. Despite the large commercial production of cumin in Iran, there is no comprehensive study on quality and quantity of its essential oil. This experiment was conducted to study morpho-phenological and physiological characters affecting essential oil yield and to identify possible chemotypes in Iranian cumin landraces. Eyvanekey landrace with the highest essential oil content and yield had the highest carotenoids and total chlorophyll contents and oil body number in the cell. The results of the GC-MS chromatography showed that the identified components were classified into four organic compounds including monoterpenes, oxygenated monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and others. According to essential oil compositions, cumin landraces were clustered in two chemotypes including low cuminal / high monoterpenes and high cuminal / low monoterpenes chemotypes, indicating a significant difference in essential oil quality. Khansar landrace with the highest cuminal content was introduced as the best Iranian landrace in terms of essential oil quality. Neronine alkaloid was identified in cumin essential oil for the first time, and Jat landrace is a novel plant source of neronine alkaloid. Essential oil yield had the positive regression and correlation coefficients with SWM (seed weight per m2) and days to maturity which indicate that these characters are suitable selection indexes to improve cumin essential oil yield. A negative relationship between the cuminal content and limonene synthase gene expression (r = -0.55*) was observed. So, it was concluded that landraces having low limonene synthase gene expression are favorable for marketing.

Genetic diversity of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cumini isolates analyzed by vegetative compatibility, sequences analysis of the rDNA IGS region and iPBS retrotransposon markers

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cumini, the causal agent of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) wilt disease is a devastating fungal pathogen, limiting cumin production in Turkey. Genetic diversity among Fusarium wilt isolates of cumin was analyzed by vegetative compatibility grouping (VCG), DNA sequencing of the intergenic spacer region (IGS) of rDNA, and Inter-PBS (iPBS) amplification of LTR retrotransposons. The pathogen isolates were grouped into thirty-three VCGs by complementation tests using nitrate non utilizing mutants; most of these VCGs contained only a single isolate. Phylogenetic analysis of IGS region revealed two main clades among the pathogen isolates in the dendrogram with a bootstrap support of 99%. The unique VCGs had similar IGS sequences and grouped into the same clades with closely related other F. oxysporum formae speciales. iPBS analysis revealed high level of intraspecific diversity among the pathogen isolates and provided a similar discrimination that was consistent in the groupings based the partial IGS sequence. The results showed that F. oxysporum isolates from cumin has a polyphyletic origin, consisting of distinct clonal lineages. Also, the results of this study supported that iPBS marker system is a powerful tool for estimating intraspecific variation within the populations of F. oxysporum.

Determination of fungal pathogens associated with Cuminum cyminum in Turkey

Ozer G., Bayraktar H. (2015): Determination of fungal pathogens associated with Cuminum cyminum in Turkey. Plant Protect. Sci., 51: 74–79. The occurrence of fungal pathogens, associated with cumin production of Turkey, was determined during 2011 and 2012. A total of 379 isolates were classified as Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cumini, F. solani, F. acuminatum , F. equiseti , F. sambucinum , F. avenaceum, Macrophomina phaseolina , Alternaria burnsii , A. alternata, A. infectoria , Embellisia sp., and Rhizoctonia solani . Pathogenicity tests showed that F. oxysporum f.sp. cumini, F. solani, F. equiseti , M. phaseolina , A. burnsii , and A. alternata were highly pathogenic. A. burnsii and F. oxysporum f.sp. cumini were the major risk factors for cumin cultivation in Turkey. To our knowledge, this is the first report on F. oxysporum f.sp. cumini, F. solani, F. equiseti , M. phaseolina, and A. alternata in Turkey.