Agro-morphological and phytochemical diversity of Iranian Cuminum cyminum accessions

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) is a commercial plant that used for various purposes in medicinal, cosmetic and food industries. Agro-morphological and chemical diversities of 20 accessions of Iranian cumin were evaluated. The samples were phenotypically diverse, which plant height, lateral branches number per plant, flower umbels number per plant, seeds (fruit) number per plant, 1000-seed weight and fruit yield were characteristics with the significant variation among studied accessions. The average content of fruit yield, essential oil content and essential oil yield of different cumin accessions were 400.2 kg ha−1, 2.1% (w/w), and 8.3 kg ha−1, respectively. In total, 23 components were identified in the essential oils, that γ-terpinene (26.53-37.81%), cumin aldehyde (9.45-20.66%), cumin alcohol (1.63-15.22%) and β-pinene (8.32-13.84%) were the major components of all samples, however, a significant variation among the accessions was observed for the quantity and quality of majority constituents. Among accessions, the Yazd accession (accession 17) showed the highest contents of essential oil, essential oil yield and cumin aldehyde. Number of flower umbels, seeds and lateral branches per plant significantly correlated with fruit yield. Cumin aldehyde showed the negative correlations with γ-terpinene and β-pinene. Morphological characters did not have significant correlations with essential oil content and its chemical components. In this study, it was obvious that the dendrogram based on morphological traits was mostly differed from the one based on phytochemical variables that showed a high potential of studied accessions for breeding programs.