Assessment of genetic diversity for among economic traits in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.)

Introduction

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill. 2𝑛 = 2𝑥 = 22) is most emerging and medicinal seed spices crops which belong to family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). Its commonly vernacular names are sauff (Hindi), Variari (Gujarati), Badishep (Marathi). It is an annual, biennial or perennial aromatic herb, depending on the variety and essential oil of fennel fruits was used for flavoring purpose, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products (Bilia et al., 2000) [1] . It is native of Southern -Europe and Mediterranean region where it has been grown since ancient times. It is now extensively cultivated on large scale in temperate and sub-tropical regions of the worlds like Romania, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, India, Argentina, and United States. It is also grown in Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Egypt, Syria, and Japan. Fennel grown as seed crop in North Indian plains and it is a medicinal plant used as anti-spasmodic, appetite stimulant, somatic, diuretic, anti inflammatory, anti diarrheic, against colic and as a lactation promoter (Neamatollahi et al., 2009) [2] . It gains its importance from high medicinal uses as it contains: "Anethol" which is an anti-cancer compound fight the liver and breast cancer, "Quercetin" which is anti-inflammation compound, dietary nitrates which lower the blood pressure and it also contain melatonin which help in lowering the excess body weight. Also fennel contains vitamin-A and C vitamins and rich in fibers (Wesam et al., 2015) [3] . In Indian folk, dry seeds may be eaten to improve vision and treat glaucoma, in Egyptian folk; boiling fennel in water may be the first baby diet as it relief its digestive system; later on fennel water becomes one of the constitutes the domestic "gripe water", used to correct flatulence of infants (Rather et al., 2012). Fennel essential oil is as value as gold for it has antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and anticancer activity (Lucinewton et al., 2005) [4] . In India, the major fennel producing states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, while many other states grown it on a small scale such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana (Meena et al., 2010) [5] . Gujarat is the leading state in fennel production, which contributes about 80-85% of total production in India (Anonymous, 2019) [6] . India is a major seed spices producer in the world. Among seed spices, only fennel contributes about 17.47% of total production. In India, present area under fennel cultivation is greatly increases from previous years with offering 90.0 thha with 157 thmt and productivity 1.575 mtha -1 . Genetic divergence analysis estimates the extent of diversity present among the studied genotypes and these studies could help the plant breeder in selecting the diverse parents for purposeful hybridization. Hence, the study was conducted to assess the genetic divergence and inter-relationship among the sixty genotypes of fennel for different yield attributes. The use of D 2 statistics of multivariate analysis gives an understanding of genetic diversity in the fennel. D 2 measures the degree of diversity and determines the relative proportion of each component traits to the total divergence. Information on these aspects in fennel is limited and hence there is a need for identifying the genotypes having better performance for yield and quality traits which belong to diverse parents. In D 2 analysis the genetic diversity is depicted by the cluster representing number of groups in which a population can be classified on the basis of D 2 statistics (Beale, 1969 and Spark D 2

1973) [1] . Thus, the study was done to study the extent of genetic divergence using ninety four genotypes of fennel including four checks (AF-1, NDF-5, NDF-12 and RF-101) in Augmented Block Design (Federer, 1956) [1] . The genetic divergence was estimated using the Mahalanobis D 2 , Mahanalobis (1963).

Materials and method

The , number of umbels plant -1 , number of umbellets umbel -1

, number of grains umbellate -1 , weight of grains umbels -1 (g), 1000-seed weight (g) and seed yield plant -1 (g). The genetic divergence D 2 was estimated by using non -hierarchical Euclidean clusters analysis (Beale, 1969 andSpark, 1973.) [1]

Results and discussions

The data depicted in this table indicated that of genetic divergence among the ninety four genotypes of fennel was carried out by using D 2 analysis (Beale, 1969 and Spark, 1973) [1] . All 94 genotypes were grouped into ten different non-overlapping clusters (Table: 1). The cluster VI (20) had highest number of genotypes followed by cluster IV and cluster IX (16), cluster III (12), cluster V (10), cluster VII (9), cluster I (5), cluster X (3), cluster VIII (2) and cluster II had one genotype. values ranged from 0.000 (cluster II) to 10.915 (cluster I). The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters II (36.76) and VII (148.264) which revealed that members of these two clusters (II and VII) are genetically much diverse to each other. The inter-cluster values between clusters II (36.76), cluster VIII (147.518) and cluster II (36.76) and IX (129.573) was very high. The minimum inter-cluster D 2 value was recorded in cluster IV (13.67) and cluster VI (11.731). The higher inter-cluster distance indicated greater genetic divergence between the genotypes of those clusters, whereas, lower inter-cluster values between the clusters suggested that genotypes of the clusters were not much genetically diverse from each other. The per se performance of the intra cluster D 2 values ranged from 0.000 (cluster II) to 10.915 (cluster I). The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters II and VII (148.264) which revealed that members of these two clusters (II and VII) were, genetically much diverse to each other. The intercluster values between cluster II and cluster VIII (147.518) and cluster II and IX (129.573) were very high. The minimum inter-cluster D 2 value was recorded in cluster IV and cluster VI (11.731). The higher inter-cluster distance indicated greater genetic divergence between the genotypes of those clusters. Whereas, lower inter-cluster values between the clusters suggested that genotypes of the clusters were not much genetically diverse from each other. The results is align with previous study was done and reported by Meena et al., (2010) [5] Table: 3 Intra and inter clusters D 2 values for ten clusters in 94 fennel genotypes The inter clusters means for ten characters in 94 fennel genotypes had given. It showed that cluster means for different characters indicated considerable differences between the clusters. Days to 50% flowering showed minimum mean value in cluster II (94.59) followed by cluster III (96.87) and cluster VIII (97.24). Days to maturity exhibited minimum mean value in cluster VIII (158.77) cluster VII (159.17). Plant height showed maximum mean value in cluster II (142.73) followed by cluster III (112.80) and cluster I (111.78). Number of branches plant -1 showed maximum mean value in cluster II (5.81) followed by cluster V (4.83) and cluster I (4.75). Number of umbels plant -1 showed maximum mean value in cluster II (62.04) followed by cluster V (44.75) and cluster I (40.75). Number of umbelletsumbel -1 showed maximum mean value in cluster II (40.18) followed by cluster I (25.65) and cluster V (23.02). Number of grains umbel -1 showed maximum mean values in cluster II (39.25) followed by cluster I (29.11) and cluster X (26.78). Weight of grains umbel -1 exhibited maximum mean values in cluster II (4.13) and cluster I (3.64). Test weight (1000-seed weight) showed maximum mean values in cluster VIII (8.77) and cluster II (8.03) and seed yield plant -1 exhibited maximum mean values in cluster II (148.99) followed by cluster V (100.53) and cluster I (98.89). Similar finding were also reported by (Meena et al., 2010) [5] . The results indicated that genetic divergence is not related to geographical diversity and may possibly be due to varietal diversity among the varieties due to diversity of their pedigree along with natural and directional selection pressure for certain agronomic traits. A similar result was also reported by Kole et al. (2002) [7] .

Table 1. Clustering pattern of ninety four genotypes of fennel

Conclusion

Considerable and significant variability was exists among the 94 genotypes of fennel. The genotype NDF-1, NDF-2, NDF-58, NDF-59 and NDF-55, NDF-60 and NDF-76 was recognized promising genotypes for seed yield plant -1 and other traits. Therefore, they might be utilizing for varietal improvement programme in fennel.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgmentDepartment of Vegetable Science at the College of Horticulture and Forestry at Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology in Kumarganj, Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh), India, is greatly appreciated by the authors for providing the facilities needed for this study.

References

1. 43, 92-94. 1969. Bilia AR, Furmarola M, Gallori S, Mazzi G, Vincieri FF. Identification by HPLC-DAD and HPLC-MS analyses and quantification of constituents of fennel teas and decoctions. Journals of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. 2000;48:4734-4738. Federer W. Augmented Block Designs. Hawaiian Planter Recorder. 1956;55:191-208.
2. Neamatollahi E, Bannayon M, Ghanbari A, Hayadari M, Ahmadian A. Does hydro and osmo-priming improve fennel seed germination and seedling growth. Notulae Botanicae Horti. Agroboctanici. 2009;37(2):19-194.
3. Wesam K, Maryam M, Sara AA, Naim S, Majid AS, Damoon AL. Therapeutic pharmacological potential and of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill): a review. Journal of Herbs & Medicinal Pharmacology. 2015;4(1):1-9.
4. Lucinewton S, Raul N, Carvalho J, Mirian B, Lin C, Angela A. Super critical fluid extraction from fennel, (Foeniculum vulgare L.), global yield, composition and kinetic data. Journal of Supercritical Fluids. 2005;35:212-219.
5. Meena RS, Anwer MM, Lal G, Mehta RS, Kakani RK, Panwar A. Genetic diversity analysis in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.). Indian Journal of Horticulture. 2010;67(4):500-504.
6. Anonymous. Horticulture Data base, National Horticulture Board, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Gurugram, Haryana, India. 2019.
7. Kole PC, Mishra AK. Genetic Divergence analysis in fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum L.). Crop Research. 2002;3:197-99.
8. Kole PC, Saha A, Hasim KM. Genetic divergence analysis in fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum L.). Crop Research. 2002;3:197-99. International Journal of Research in Agronomy https://www.agronomyjournals.com 26180618, 2026, 9(10), Downloaded from https://www.doi.org/10.33545/2618060X.2026.v9.i10Sc.6822 by International Journal of Research in Agronomy on [08/10/2026]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://www.agronomyjournals.com) for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
9. Mahanalobis PC. On the generalized distance in statistics. Proceedings of the national institute of Sciences of India. 1936;2:49-55.
10. Rather MA, Bilal AD, Shahnawaz NS, Bilal AB, Mushtaq AQ. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare L.). A comprehensive review traditional use of its phytochemistry, pharmacology and safety. Arabian Journal of Chemistry. 2016;9(2):1574-1583.
11. Spark DN. Euclidean cluster analysis: Algorithm As 58. Applied Statistics. 1973;22:126-136. How to cite this article: Singh K, Ram C, Neetu, Singh D, Maurya N, Upadhyay A, et al. Assessment of genetic diversity for among economic traits in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.). International Journal of Research in Agronomy. 2026;SP9(10):187-190. doi: https://www.doi.org/10.33545/2618060X.20