• Thushara V S
• Dr.Radhakrishnan V V
• Dr. Mohanan K V

Abstract : Medicinal plants are considered as a rich source of active principles which can be used in pharmaceutical industry. In India, plants have been used for medicinal purposes and have served as the main source of herbal medicines to the rural people and have been used for preventive, promotive and curative purposes. In this context the cultivation of medicinal plants needs more attention to improve the agricultural and rural economy. As a medicinal plant Kaempferia rotunda L. is a suitable species for cultivation in Kerala. Selection of promising genotypes having high yield has immense scope in the crop improvement of Kaempferia rotunda. With this objective, an experiment for the analysis of the genetic diversity of the species in Kerala State of India was carried out presently based on genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance. Sixty eight accessions of Kaempferia rotunda collected from different locations of Kerala State of India formed the experimental material. The study was undertaken at the Department of Botany of University of Calicut, Kerala during 2016-2018. In the first year, sufficient rhizomes were collected from the sources and planted for preliminary study. In 2017-18, an experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with three replications by adopting standard agricultural practices. Data on fifteen growth and yield characters were recorded by destructive sampling at the end of the experiment and analyzed statistically to study the extent of genetic variability existing in the crop based on these characters. Among the characters studied, the highest GCV and PCV were shown by yield per plant. Broad sense heritability of the agronomic characters ranged from 13.04% to 62.88%. The maximum heritability was observed for yield per plant (62.88%) followed by plant height (62.57%), leaf length (62.52%) and diameter of primary finger (61.11%). High heritability indicates the limited influence of environment on these characters. Highest genetic advance was observed in yield per plant (66.48%) followed by number of secondary fingers (34.69%) and length of secondary finger (24.98%), thus showing the usefulness of these characters in selection programmes.

Kaempferia rotunda,variability, heritability, genetic advance.

"Genetic Diversity of Kaempferia rotunda L. Accessions of Kerala", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 11, page no.154-162, November-2020, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2011025.pdf

"Genetic Diversity of Kaempferia rotunda L. Accessions of Kerala", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 11, page no. pp154-162, November-2020, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2011025.pdf