Analysis of the Foeniculum vulgare Mill. collection by the complex of features in the conditions of the Crimea foothills
Research Institute of Agriculture of Crimea, 150 Kievskaya street, RU295493 Simferopol, Russia
*Correspondence:nevkritaya@mail.ru
Abstract:
Foeniculum vulgare Mill. is a valuable essential oil plant, which raw materials and derived products, and, above all, essential oil, are widely used in the perfume and cosmetics, liquor, paint and varnish industries, in the food industry and medicine. The source material for cultivated plants selection, including F. vulgare, is the collections of the gene pool. The objective of this study was a comparative study of F. vulgare samples collection by the complex of features to clarify the possibility of identifying sources of economically valuable characteristics for creating promising breeding material. The study of the F. vulgare collection supported by the Research Institute of Agriculture of Crimea, which includes 75 samples rom 28 countries, was conducted in 2017–2019 at an experimental base located in the Crimea Foothills (Krymskaya Roza village, Belogorsky district). The collection samples were analyzed according to morphobiological parameters and productivity indicators. The work was guided by generally accepted methods, including those developed for essential oil plants. Statistical processing of the obtained data was carried out. The wide variability of the collection is shown, according to individual indicators (variation coefficients – from 8.3 to 54.4%). In this way, the mass fraction of essential oil (one of the most important indicators) varies within a wide range in the collection – from 1.09 to 3.86% (of absolutely dry mass) in whole plants and from 4.16 to 8.53% in fruits. The composition of the essential oil depends on the raw material. The anethole content reaches 80% in fruit oil, and the content of fenchone and terpene compounds is increased during the plant processing. The results of the collection analysis are basic, allowing preliminary sampling with high productivity indicators for inclusion in breeding studies.
Key words:
collection, Essential oil, Foeniculum vulgare, genetic variability, productivity parameters