Performance of Asalio (Lepidium Sativum L.) Genotypes Under Semi-Arid Condition of Middle Gujarat

Asalio (Lepidium sativum L.), is a low water requiring medicinal herb: the roots, leaves and seeds are used for different medicinal preparations. A field experiment was conducted to assess the response of five important lines (No. 99, No. 31, No. 37, No. 16 and No. 53) and one cultivar (GA-1) of Asalio in terms of leaf photosynthetic characteristics, growth and grain yield. The results revealed that there was wide variability in different genotypes with regard to all these above parameters. A line, No. 16 exhibited maximum growth in terms of all these characters. Maximum seed yield of 18.1 q ha⁻¹ was also obtained in No. 16 with a harvest index (HI) of 32.2% and test weight (1000 seed weight) of 1.76 g, which was the maximum among all the genotypes. The significant variability among the genotypes with respect to all these above determinants indicates the utility of the line No. 16 under semi-arid condition.