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

Abstract

The 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.

Determination of seed yield, quality and fixed oil components of different basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) genotypes: Evaluation of fatty acid profile by PCA biplot analysis

“…Also, F1 and F2 explained the variation at the rate of 79.06 (Table 5 and Figure 1). Correlation analysis methods were used to select the influential features to indirect selection of best genotypes (Yaldiz & Camlica, 2020). In this context, principle components analysis (PCA) is a suitable multivariate technique to determine the genotypes.…”

Productive, Morpho-Physiological, and Postharvest Performance of Six Basil Types Grown in a Floating Raft System: A Comparative Study

“…Currently, they are the undisputed stars of popular recipes in traditional cuisine and gourmet preparations, as well as in industrial derivative products such as dietary supplements, perfumes and soaps, cosmetics, and medicines [ 4 ]. The different uses to which these plants lend themselves result from inherent genetic variability; not surprisingly, the genus Ocimum L. includes more than 150 species [ 5 ]. The different species, in addition to diversifying in morphological characteristics (color and shape of leaves and flowers, etc.…”

Response of Basil (Ocimum basilicum) Growth and Yield to Planting Densities and Row Arrangements in Tomato-Basil Intercropping System

“…Basil and tomato are believed to be companion plants with similar light and water requirements and in the same cases, tomatoes taste better when they neighbor basil (Pereira et al 2015;Gomes et al 2021;Yaldiz and Camlica 2021). According to Carvalho et al (2017), higher tomato yields have been observed under intercropping with aromatic plants as compared to tomato alone, and thus, intercropping is a more profitable system.…”