Study of genetic variability pattern and their possibility of exploitation in Ocimum germplasm

The present study was designed to evaluate genetic diversity among fifteen accessions of five Ocimum species. Mean data from three locations of two consecutive years (2007-2009) was evaluated in the study. Highly significant ANOVA results indicated the presence of a high amount of genetic variability which was also confirmed by the wide range of D2-values. The observations defined genotypes into six clusters. The intra-cluster divergence was maximum within cluster-I (18.30) while, the inter-cluster divergence was highest between clusters-II and VI (76.01). The highest contribution toward total divergence was observed for leaf width (18.30%) followed by oil yield g/plot (14.41%) and leaf area (11.37%), while, leaf stem ratio (5.74%) and plant height (5.66%) contributed lowest. Clusters III and IV recorded for highest herb and essential oil yield, respectively. The highly divergent accessions namely, OCA-12, OCG-13, OCG-14, OCB-7 and OCB-8 can be exploited for the development of high oil yielding Ocimum cultivars/varieties.