Genetic resources, diversity, characterization and utilization of agronomical traits in turmeric (Curcuma longa L.)

• Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is a perennial rhizomatous plant of tropical and subtropical regions belongs to Zingiberaceae family.
• The antioxidant activity of Curcuma longa L. has their importance as a food additive to prevent the oxidation.
• Multivariate analysis was performed for knowing the genetic diversity of 65 turmeric genotypes using 13 agro-morphological traits.
• The genotypes 45 and 51 of cluster VI and genotype 12 of cluster VII showed high genetic diversity can be exploited for commercial exploitation.

The nature and magnitude of genetic divergence were estimated among sixty-five turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) genotypes using Mahalanobis D2-statistics on thirteen agro-morphological quantitative traits. Mahalanobis’s D2 analysis revealed considerable amount of diversity among the Curcuma genotypes. The genotypes were grouped into seven clusters. Cluster I had maximum number of genotypes (37) followed by cluster II and III (9 genotypes each), IV (4), V (3), VI (2) and VII (1) in order. The genotypes falling under cluster I had the maximum divergence (430.90), which was closely followed by cluster II (332.99) and cluster IV (325.72). The highest inter-cluster distances were observed between cluster VI (959.96) and cluster VII (1020.64), suggesting that the genotypes included in these clusters may be used for future breeding programme. Traits like plant height, fresh weight of rhizome were the major contributors to genetic divergence.