Evaluation of Gloriosa superba for Yield Attributing Characters and Quantification of Colchicine Originated from Different Agro Climatic Zones of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh

The study was conducted to evolve Gloriosa superba for yield characters and alkalodi content for selecting elite genotypes for comercial exploitatio n. The genotypes were sowm in Variyankaval village, Udayarpalayam taluk of Ariyalur district, Tamil Nadu. The highest mean value for fresh and dry seed yield was observed in Chittor local. The genotype Mulanur local has recorded the highest mean value for number of pods per plant and number of seeds per pod and Arupukotai local excelled the general mean for the traits seeds per pod, fresh and dry seed yield and also for tuber characters. An investigation was carried out to quantify the colchicine (alkaloid) present in tubers by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. The genotypes collected from Arupukotai recorded the highest colchicine content (0.760 mg/g) followed by Chittoor (0.578 mg/g) and Mulanur (0.496 mg/g) and there by these three genotypes were utilized for further crop improvement.