Authors:
* Fatma Kalleli, Ines Bettaieb Rebey
, Nesrine Razgallah, Moufida Saidani Tounsi
, Mahmoud
M Hamdi ,Tunisia
|
Abstract:
Knowledge on phenotypic and chemical diversity among fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.)
cultivars is a milestone in the improvement of this specie which is considered as one of the most
important medicinal plants. For this purpose, the present study was conducted in order to
compare for the first time fennel cultivars regarding their agro-morphological traits as well as
their essential oil yield and composition. Ten fennel cutivars were cultivated in a randomized
completely block design whereas the seeds essential oil was analysed by GC-MS analysis. All
phenotypic traits showed variation among the cultivars examined. Correlations between traits
showed a significant positive relation between yield and height, number of leaves, number of
branches, number of umbels , number of umbellate and peduncle length. Significant genotypic
variations were also observed in essential oil content and composition in which trans-anethole,
estragole, fenchone and limonene were the main constituents. Clustering method classified the
ten fennel cultivars into 3 major groups. Moreover, PCA analysis showed great dispersion of
these cultivars. The diversity identified in this study, especially from the three varietal types,
showed that some cultivars are featured with several agro-morphological and chemical
characteristics and could be further exploited as promising material for the creation of new
varieties. |
