Stability Analysis for Biomass and Essential Oil Yield in Basil (Ocimum basilicum) Germplasm

The essential oil of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is used for flavoring foods, dental and oral products. Stability analysis was conducted on 30 accessions of basil germplasm (exotic as well as indigenous). These accessions were augmented from different countries namely, India (10), USA (10), USSR (7), Germany (1), Hungary (1) and Poland (1). These were evaluated under four diverse environments comprising two locations and two years (2004 and 2005). The mean performance and stability parameters of 30 accessions were analyzed under four environments for nine characters, namely, number of primary branches/plant, lamina length (cm), lamina width (cm), leaf-stem ratio, plant height (cm), fresh herbage yield/plant (g), dry herbage yield/plant (g), essential oil content (%) and essential oil yield/plant (ml). All 30 genotypes had squared deviation equivalent to zero (S² di=0) showing consistent performance of the genotypes among all the environments. Essential oil is the economic product of basil. Five genotypes viz. EC388788, IC333332, IC336833, IC388891 and EC338773 were identified as desirable and stable in relation to essential oil yield per plant. Two genotypes (EC388788 and IC333332) were found superior for essential oil yield, fresh herbage yield and dry herbage yield/plant over the four environments. Hence, these genotypes could be recommended for their direct utilization across the environments.