Lecture.
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Genetic resources, objectives of breeding, principles and method of breeding and
salient breeding achievements in kokam & betelvine
Kokam: Garcinia indica Family: Clausiaceae (syn : Guttiferea)
Kokam is dioecious, but seems to be highly variable in sex forms.
Origin of kokum trees: &ative to evergreen forests of western mountain range
Sex types: The trees could be designated into the following types on the basis of
preponderance of particular type of flowers and the bearing tendency of individual tree.
Kokum Flower Kokum
Tree type -1 – Staminate or male tree
The flowers have mostly long pedicels, mass of stamens crowded on receptacle
and sometimes rudimentary pistil with pointed apex. They are incapable of producing any
fruit and serve as pollinators only.
Tree type- II- Hermaphrodite or bisexual
Young fruits produced by the tree are generally irregular in shape containing 0 to
6 underdeveloped seeds. Yield per tree may vary from 1 to 3 kg of fruits.
Tree type III- Pistillate or female
Flower is identified by short pedicel, well developed pistil and two or four tufts of
staminodes below. Fruits are round to globose, dark red when ripe and contain 1 to 7 well
developed seeds. Adult tree bears heavy crop. In a population of 62 trees observed 37 per
cent turned out to be male, 8 per cent bisexual and 55 per cent female.
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Constraints and suggestions for Kokum Development in India
1. Scattered production: No organized production of kokum at present. Most
homesteads have a few trees from which fruits are collected from a wider area and
it adds to the cost of production.
2. Federations/ Cooperative groups, Processing and marketing federations of
collectors and growers should be formed. Collective farming system should be
adopted.
3. Short harvesting period: Fruit harvest in kokum is only for about six weeks in a
year, which is a short period for processing. During the first half of the summer
the demand of kokum has to be met out of the production of the previous year and
then supplying the production of current year for the second half.
4. Spoilage of the produce: Kokum starts fruiting from March and it extends until
the first week of June. If it rains during the fruiting season the fruits will be
spoiled. Premonsoon showers will spoil part of kokum produce.
5. Regional and seasonal demand: Though kokum drink is superior to many
synthetic soft drinks in the market, its use is not known through out India. It is
suggested to popularize kokum drink as a health drink than a soft drink.
Varieties
At KKV, Dapoli, fourteen kokum types with early maturity, bigger sized fruits
and high yield have been identified.
Konkan Amrit: Released from KKV Dapoli (Dr. B.S. Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth.).
Konkan Amrit variety fruits are bigger in size weighing about 30 g.
Yellow kokum: A unique variety of kokum in Uttara Kannada dist. It is locally called as
bili murugalu though the colour is yellow. It is believed to posses more medicinal
properties. Skin will turn yellow at the time of ripening.
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Kokum is one of the important non timber forest produces (NTFPs) collected from the
western ghats of Karnataka.
Variety Konkan Amritha was developed by clonal selection. This variety is considerably
early having short harvesting period (78days) with a few pluckings. The yield is high
(138.28kg) with medium sized fruits (34.45g) having rind of 17.55g. Filled seeds were
3.55 per fruit. This variety is a pure female.
Betel vine
Betel vine: Piper betle Family: Piperaceae
Betel vine is a perennial, dioecious evergreen creeper. There are about 100
number of cultivars recognized by the growers and traders in India. These are classified
based on leaf size, shape, texture, quality and taste. The morphological differences in
terms of length: breadth ratio due to sexual dimorphism do exist in betelvine. Male plants
have leaves which are narrowly ovate with 1.84 length: breadth ratio and female plants
have cordate or ovate leaves with 1.26 length: breadth ratio. Leaves of the female plants
are mostly pungent and male plants are non pungent.
Origin: Malaysia (Central and Eastern Malaysia). It was introduced to India in pre
historic times. It is believed to have come originally from Java.
Important cultivars of different betelvine growing countries
Country Cultivars
India Bangla, Meetha, Sanchi, Karpoori, Kashi, Tellaku, Mahai,
Kariyale, Deshawari, Desi Bangla, Kallipatti, Godi Bangla, Naua
Bangla, Pachakodi, Vellaikodi, Mahoba Bangla, Ghanagatte,
Ambadi,Bangla, Simurali Bhavana, Ramtek Bangla, Kali Bangla,
SB -35
Sri Lanka Ratadalu, Gelathoda, Kahaneru, Nagawalli
Malaysia Sireh China, Sireh Malaya, Sireh Hudang
Indonesia Sireh Hitam, Sireh Buah, Sireh Balawi
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In India two high yielding cultivars have been developed in recent years of which
SGM-1 is for cultivation in southern States. DPB-6 was released by Maharashtra state
and Bidhan pan was released by West Bengal and Orissa. This cultivar was also
recommended for cultivation in North Eastern States under protected cultivation.
Characteristics of commonly traded and improved cultivars are as follows
Bangla: It is one of the widely traded types which encompass a large number of land
races of betelvine. It grows vigorously and are generally very pungent. Leaves are having
7-9 prominent secondary veins, petioles are 8-10cm in length and lamina are 8.5-15.5 x
11-19cm, dark green in colour with yellowish tinge. Leaves are cordate to roundish
having widest part of the lamina below the middle point, entire and glabrous. Leaves are
also fibrous with nearly having 82% eugenol.
Meetha: Grown mostly in three districts of West Bengal namely, East Midnapore, South
24-Parganas and Howrah. Leaves are comparatively thinner than Bangla, waxy, cordate
to broadly ovate, dark green in colour with characteristic pale yellowish specks and
having short apex but pointed. The characteristic aroma in leaves is due to presence of the
anethole as one of the constituents.
Sanchi: Leaves are medium to large in size, narrow and ovate with long base, lobes less
prominent than Bangla. Leaf margin is entire. Leaves are dark green and fibrous. Leaves
are pungent.
Kapoori: It is grown mostly in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and
Karnataka. Vines are moderately vigorous, highly branched and leaves are narrow to
ovate with thin lamina and soft in texture. The aroma is due to presence of high
percentage (20%) of terpenyl acetate.
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Deshawari: It produces large cordate leaves with short, pointed, acuminate and
characteristically curved apex. It has mild sweet taste which is due to low anethole
content.
Khasi: This cultivar is somewhat wild in character and mainly grown in North Eastern
hilly region. Leaf colour is dark to dull green.
SGM 1: It is a clonal selection from a Palghat type. It is adaptable to all betel vine-
growing areas of Tamil Nadu. It produces a higher leaf yield of 109 lakh leaves per
hectare in a crop duration of 2 to 2½ years. The vines are dwarf statured with vigorous
bushy growth having thick hardy stem with short internodes and multilateral. Leaves are
attractive yellowish green colour with desirable pungency. It is the first betel vine variety
released by TNAU from Southern India.
SGM
SGM (BV) 2: This is a pureline selection from Dindigul local. It possesses multilateral
vines (17-20/vine) with long petioles and attractive dark green leaves. The leaves are
moderately pungent with good chewing quality. It is a high yielder with good market
appeal. The duration of the crop is 2-2½ years. The suitable season for cultivation was
January – March and June – August for Agathi and March – May and August – October
for betelvine. The crop is moderately resistant to phytopthora wilt, blight and nematodes.
It yields about 49 lakh leaves / ha / year which is 25.4% increase over SGM 1, 33.8%
increase over Karpoori and 62.0% increase over vellaikodi. It can be cultivated all over
Tamil Nadu and is suitable for open trench cultivation.
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Bidan Pan: It is a selection from the local Bangla cultivar. The characteristic feature of
the plant is short internode length. The productivity goes high due to short internodal
length.
DBP-6: It is a selection from a local Karpoori collection from Maharashtra. The cultivar
has given about 10-18 percent increase in productivity over the cultivars of Maharashtra.
Leaf characters are similar to Karpoori.
Cultivated types including wild and semi wild types should be extensively
collected and should be grown under uniform conditions and various traits like yield,
quality, disease and pest resistance should be evaluated in wild and semi wild types
which may be valuable sources for resistance genes.
Procedure for selection in the several progenies includes a) cultivars can be inbred
to produce seeds and selection is to be done among the progenies varied there from. b)
Inter breeding of cultivars and selection in resulting progenies. Induction of new
variations can be achieved through mutation; somoclonal variations through tissue culture
of cultivars; haploid can be intercrossed to develop heterotic hybrids. Betelvine can be
crossed with other sister species (inter specific hybridization) ad the resulting F1 and F2
there from can be studied for desirable variants.
References
1. Journal of Plantation Crops
2. T.K. Bose, V.A. Parthasarathy and P.K. chattopadhyay. 2006 Plantation Crops
Vol.2 Pub: Partha Sankar Basu, NayaUdyog, 206, Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata 700 006,
India
3. Chadha KL & Rethinam P. (Eds.).1993. Advances in Horticulture. Vol. IX.
Plantation Crops and Spices. Part-I. Malhotra Publ. House.
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Answer the following
1. What is the botanical name and family of kokam?
2. What are the sex types in Garcinia?
3. Mention the constraints for kokam development in India
4. What are the varieties developed in kokam?
5. What is the botanical name and family of betelvine?
6. the origin of betelvine is ----------
7. List out the cultivars of different betelvine growing areas
8. Describe the features of SGM1 & 2
9. Narrate the procedure for selection of progenies in betel vine
10. What is Bidan pan?
