International Journal of Horticulture 2015, Vol.5, No.5, 1
-
13
1
Research Article Open Access
Combining Ability and Heterosis for Qualitative Traits in Chili Pepper
(
Capsicum annuum
L.)
S. K. Jindal , D.Kaur, M. S.Dhaliwal, N.Chawla
Department of Vegetable Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India-141004
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Horticulture, 2015, Vol.5, No.5 doi: 10.5376/ijh.2015.05.0005
Received: 04 Mar., 2015
Accepted: 08 May., 2015
Published: 20 May., 2015
Copyright
© 2015 Jindal et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Jindal et al., 2015, Combining Ability and Heterosis for Qualitative Traits in Chili Pepper (
Capsicum annuum
L.), International Journal of Horticulture, 2015,
Vol.5, No.5 1-13 (doi
Abstract
Eight parents were crossed in half diallel design to develop 28 F
1
hybrids and these hybrids along with 8 parents like MS
341, SL 461, DL 161, SL 462, SD 463, PP 402, PP 403, VR 521 and four, commercial checks viz., CH-1, CH-3, Rudra and Soldier
were evaluated for eight traits in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications at Punjab Agricultural
University, Ludhiana, India. The results from present investigation revealed that the hybrids which were found superior on the basis
of
per se
performance were also found best specific combiners as well as heterotic over the commercial checks. The present study
also investigates that non-additive gene effects had greater role in controlling the inheritance of quality traits.
Keywords
Chilli; Combining ability; Gene effects; Heterosis; Quality traits
Introduction
Chilli (
Capsicum annuum
L.) forms an indispensable
adjunct in every home of tropical world as it provides
a spicy taste, pungency and adds appealing colour to
the food preparation. The pungency of chilli is due to
an alkaloid “capsaicin” present in the placenta of fruit
that has diverse prophylactic and therapeutic uses in
allopathic and ayurvedic medicine. They are used
against tonsillitis, diphtheria, loss of appetite,
flatulence, intermittent fevers, atonic gout, rheumatism,
sore throat, swelling and hardened tumours. The red
colour of chilli fruit is due to presence of carotenoid
pigments mainly consists of capsanthin and
capsorubin (Kumar et al., 2003) but chlorophyll
pigment is responsible for green colour.
Transformation of fruit colour from green to red
during ripening is due to transition from chloroplast to
chromoplast in the exocarp (Monser and Matile, 1997).
The chilli extract produced by processing of chilli is
called as chilli oleoresin. The processed food
industries in the West are shifting to chilli oleoresin
rather than their ground form because the oleoresin
offers uniform quality, longer shelf life and lesser
freight charges. Further, the flavor strength can be
controlled by adjusting concentration of the most
significant constituents in the oleoresins. The paprika
oleoresin is gaining more importance in the food
industries as a natural food colour in place of synthetic
colour whereas, pungent oleoresin is useful for
pharmaceutical purpose. Keeping in view the market
demand, chilli oleoresin has vast demand in
pharmaceutical and food industry (Singh et al., 2003).
Growers and processors of chilli differ in the quality
criteria they apply, the former desiring high yields,
lack of diseases and pests and good fruit colour and
the latter favouring good appearance, storage quality,
processing quality and nutritional quality. Quality
components of chilli and paprika include red fruit
colour, vitamin content and pungency. Colour is an
important quality parameter of consumer preference.
Almost all Indian recipes include red chilli powder as
it imparts good colour to variety of dishes. Chilli are
considered to be rich source of vitamin C, vitamin A
which is important antioxidants (Howard et al., 1994).
It is also a rich source of proteins, carbohydrates,
sugars and minerals. Apart from this, chilli is credited
with many virtues, since it has a great medicinal value
(Nadakarni, 1927). They are also used for making
chutney and frying with gram dal paste, for this
purpose
non-pungent
types
are
preferred.
Non-pungent chilli varieties have high sugar content,
which are generally characterized by thick pericarp,
less pungency, less seed numbers and generally
medium size.
India, being the largest chilli producer has vast
potentiality to increase production and promote export
