European Journal of Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Glory lily (Gloriosa superba L.), a high value medicinal crop cultivated in Tamil Nadu for its valuable seeds and tubers. This crop belongs to the family Colchicaceae. The active principle Colchicine and Colchicoside present in seeds and tubers cures gout and rheumatism. The genetic variability also is low owing to the continued vegetative propagation through tubers. There is an urgent need to explore the possibilities for developing variability in this species with high seed yield and improved colchicine content through induced mutations. Mutation breeding was effected involving physical and chemical mutagens viz., gamma rays, Ethyl methyl sulfonate (EMS) and Diethyl Sulphate (DES). On analysing the variance, significant differences were observed among the treatments for most of the traits. Phenotypic coefficient of variation was in general slightly higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation for the selected traits in VM₂ generation indicating the influence of environmental factors on these traits. High heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean was recorded for most of the characters under study indicating better scope for further selection. Differential patterns resulted in ISSR analysis indicating the polymorphism created by induced mutagenesis, creating scope for selection of desirable mutants in G. superba.