Collection and evaluation of Hedychium species of Manipur, Northeast India
NE India is considered as one of the centre of diversity of gingers having a total account of 24 species out of the 65 valid species found in the world. Manipur is one of the seven states of NE India with a mere area of 0.7% out of the total area of India. This paper focuses on the distribution, classification and evaluation of Hedychium species collected from Manipur. A total of 11 species were collected, identified and classified based on their morphological characteristics. The species are identified as Hedychium rubrum A.S. Rao et Verma, H. coronarium Koenig, H. chrysoleucum Hook., H. coccineum Buch.-Ham., H. thrysiforme Ker-Gawl., H. flavescens Carey ex Roscoe, H. stenopetalum Lodd., H. urophyllum Lodd., H. marginatum Clarke, H. villosum Wall. and H. elatum R. Brown. Evaluation of its botanical characteristics are also conducted. Analytical hierarchy process method is used in this paper to address the possibility of analysing the potential of these diverse Hedychium resources based on their ornamental, adaptability and utilisation potential which was evaluated on 12 indicator points. H. elatum scored the highest overall index making it the most potential species for sustainable exploitation followed by H. coronarium while H. villosum ranked the lowest.
Genetic Diversity Analysis of Hedychium Species Based on RAPD and ISSR Markers
The present study reports for the first time the genetic diversity assessment of Hedychium species collected from different parts of Manipur using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) markers. Eleven RAPD and five ISSR markers produced 271 polymorphic fragments with an average polymorphism of 96.95% between the eleven Hedychium species and similarity coefficients ranged from 0.19 to 0.44 with an average of 0.30, which in turn, indicates high genetic diversity. Cophenetic correlation coefficients between the dendrogram and the combined similarity matrices were moderately significant (r = 0.67). UPGMA clustering based on Jaccard’s similarity coefficient using the combined RAPD and ISSR markers placed the accessions into three distinct clusters with respect to their morphological characteristics and geographical location. Both RAPD and ISSR markers were efficient in distinguishing the eleven Hedychium species, however, ISSR markers were observed to be better in displaying average polymorphism (99%) than RAPD (96.03%). The study has contributed in understanding the genetic diversity and gene pool conservation of Hedychium species.
Studies on the composition, quality and processing of triticale. Part II. Mineral composition of grain and flour.
Mineral composition of grain and flour in 14 promising triticale strains from India are reported. The mean values for whole grain, i.e. Ca (0.47 mg/g), P (2.70 mg/g), K 4.60 mg/g, Na (352 micrograms/g), Zn (41.6 micrograms/g), Cu (7.0 micrograms/g), Fe (73.4 micrograms/g) and Mn (33.6 micrograms/g) were obtained as compared to those of flour, i.e. Ca (0.27 mg/g), P (0.97 mg/g), K (1.64 mg/g), Na (231 micrograms/g), Zn (26 micrograms/g), Cu (4.0 micrograms/g) and Mn (10.5 micrograms/g), respectively. These values were found to be considerably higher than those of wheat. Highly significant positive correlations of ash with sodium and zinc in whole grain were observed. In the case of triticale flour, highly significant positive correlations of ash with manganese, phosphorus and potassium were obtained.