Assessment of Genetic Variability in Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.)

Thirty genotypes of coriander were evaluated for estimates of variability, heritability and genetic advance in ten quantitative traits, viz. , plant height, number of branches per plant, days to 50 % flowering, days to maturity, number of umbels per plant, number of umbellete per umbel, number of seeds per umbellete, thousand seed weight, volatile oil content in seed and seed yield per plant. The analysis of variance indicated that presence of considerable amount of diversity in the material. Phenotypic coefficients in variations were of higher magnitude than that of genotypic coefficient of variations for all the traits. The highest GCV and PCV were observed for seed yield per plant (30.82 and 31.91 %) and volatile oil content in seed (22.42 and 25.31 %). High estimates of heritability was observed for thousand seed weight, plant height, days to 50 % flowering, days to maturity, seed yield per plant, number of seeds per umbellete and number of umbels per plant. Genetic gain varied from 16.74 % for days to maturity to 61.31 % for seed yield per plant. Better gains were also recorded for volatile oil content in seed, number of umbels per plant and number of seeds per umbellete. The high estimation of GCV, PCV, heritability and genetic gain for the different traits suggesting probable role of additive gene effects on character expression.