Assessing the variability and relationship among fruit and seed characters of soap yielding Sapindus mukrossii Gaertn

Ritha, Sapindus mukrossii belongs to family Sapindaceae. It is the important multipurpose medicinal tree of low and mid hilly regions of Himachal Pradesh. Its fruits are an important source of revenue to the farmers. The fruits are graded according to their size and colour to fetch good price in the market. Fruits of Sapindus mukrossii were studied over a wide range of its distribution from N 32^o10^// to 32^o 42^// and E 75^o45^// to 76^o01^//of the lower subtropical region of North-Western part of Shivalik Himalayas. The fruits collected were mixed thoroughly and individual seed source was maintained properly for further studies. The fruit diameter variability ranged between 12.00–23.67 mm and the highest fruit diameter was recorded in the Bhagot (Chamba) accession, whereas the rind weight ranged between 0.23–0.59 g/seed and the maximum weight of the rind per seed was recorded in the Chubari (Chamba) accession. The best fruit and seed characters were that of Bhagot (Chamba) collection. Seed weight was positively and significantly related with rind thickness. Fruit weight was positively correlated with the rind weight (0.529) and was also positively correlated with fruit diameter (0.351).