Academic Research Journal of Agricultural Science and Research
 

Academic Research Journal of Agricultural Science and Research 

Vol. 5(7), pp. 489-508. November, 2017.

ISSN: 2360-7874 

 DOI: 10.14662/ARJASR2017.078

Full Length Research

Agronomic and Bio-chemical Variability of Ethiopian Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) Accessions

Desta Fikadu Egata*, Woldemariam Geja and Beemnet Mengesha

Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center. P. O. Box 198, Shashemene, Ethiopia. Corresponding authors email:  destafikadu55@yahoo.com

Mobile: +251917140698 or +25932214046

Accepted 24 October 2017

Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is a branching herbaceous aromatic spice and medicinal plant that belong to the Lamiaceae family. Farmers of Ethiopia conventionally cultivate and use this crop for house consumption and provide for local market. Despite the existence of genetic resources of sweet basil in the country, there is no conclusive information about the biology, agronomy and varieties concerning the crop under Ethiopian condition. To address morpho-agronomic variability and to select promising sweet basil accessions, test trial was conducted at HARC and WGARC during the main season of 2015. Twenty eight sweet basil accessions were tested using randomized complete block design. Data were collected from 7 qualitative and 20 quantitative traits. SAS package for the general linear model procedure was used for data analysis. Mean squares from combined ANOVA revealed the existence of variability among accessions for all traits. Significant location and accession x location interaction effects indicated performance inconsistency of accessions to varied environments. A range of fresh leaf yield (1.3 to 14.35 tons/ha), A total of 17 and 12 accessions gave higher than their overall average fresh leaf yield (13.75 tons/ha) and total aboveground biomass (42.00 tons/ha). Identification and morphological characterization conventionally gave some clue on variability of Ethiopian sweet basil but still there is unanswered question which needs to be answered with experiment. Molecular characterization and chemical composition analyses should be done on this crop for clear and further identification.

Key words: Essential oil, economical, sweet basil and variability

How to cite this article: Egata DF, Geja W, Mengesha B (2017). Agronomic and Bio-chemical Variability of Ethiopian Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) Accessions. Acad. Res. J. Agri. Sci. Res. Vol. 5(7), pp. 489-508

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