Syzygium aromaticum : A subtropical tree scrutinized for the genetic differentiation among the altitudes of Nilgiris

Abstract

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) is one of the most economically significant oil producing trees in India, whose importance is mainly due to its medicinal features. Unfortunately, importing rate of the spice is increasing which would be an economic drawback for the country. Therefore, information regarding genetic diversity and the oil quality of the tree is necessary as a part to increase the cultivation. Thus the present work was conducted to identify the genetic difference between the collected samples among different altitudes of Nilgiris in comparison to the extracted oil quality to select high quality oil yielding variety for cropping. RAPD and GC-MS techniques were used for analyzing genetic diversity and oil extraction respectively. The phylogeny constructed revealed that the samples S1& S6 are genetically more similar, whereas S2 is far distinct from all other samples. S3 shared a close relation with S1 & S6. Samples S4, S5 were separated out but are within the same node. The eugenol percentage of the samples S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6 are 42.96%, 68.78%, 55.95%, 71.17%, 74.04% and 73.47% respectively. From the collected data it is inferred that though the samples shared genetic similarity there observed a considerable difference in the eugenol content. This information needs to be correlated with the cultivation practices and the soil nutrition based on which commercial cropping could be done to improvize the clove sector of the country.