Garlic: Its Importance and Biotechnological Improvement

Garlic bulb is an important seasoning ingredient and used in countless world's cuisines. Clonal lineages within this species exhibit high degree of phenotypic diversity in bulb size and colour. Present review describes morphology, taxonomy, chemistry, cultivation, medicinal properties, post harvest processing and biotechnological approaches for improvement. Special emphasis is laid on the genetic variations of garlics with special emphasis on Indian accessions. The available results are divergent; some studies indicate that genetic diversity is correlated with geographical region, whereas majority does not show such correlations. The divergence might be due to local selection pressure and differences in adaptability of the garlic to different geographical conditions. Recent RAPD and inter-simple sequence repeat findings help to explain the genetic relationships and population structure of garlic accessions of Indian origin.