~ 606 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2021; 10(2): 606-609 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 www.phytojournal.com JPP 2021; 10(2): 606-609 Received: 25-12-2020 Accepted: 10-02-2021 Priyanka GP Department of Fruit Science, KRC College of Horticulture, Arabhavi, Belagavi, Karnataka, India IB Biradar Department of Agronomy and Technical Officer to Vice- chancellor, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, Bagalkot, Karnataka, India Satish D Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, Bagalkot, Karnataka, India Sandhyarani Nishani Department of Biotechnology and Crop Improvement, KRC College of Horticulture, Arabhavi, Belagavi, Karnataka, India Nagesh Naik Department of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture, Sirsi, Uttar Kannada, Karnataka, India Manukumar HR Department of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture, Koppal, Koppal, Karnataka, India Corresponding Author: Priyanka GP Department of Fruit Science, KRC College of Horticulture, Arabhavi, Belagavi, Karnataka, India Character association and path analysis studies in tamarind ( Tamarindus indica L.) genotypes Priyanka GP, IB Biradar, Satish D, Sandhyarani Nishani, Nagesh Naik, and Manukumar HR Abstract The present study was carried out at HRES, Hidkal Dam, Belagavi district, Karnataka during the year 2019-2020, to investigate the character association, direct and indirect effect of pod traits on tree yield among various genotypes of tamarind. The analysis of variance found to be highly significant among genotypes for all the yield parameters. Pod yield per tree (kg/tree) had highly significant and positive correlation with all the characters studied such as pod length, pod width, pod girth, pulp weight, shell weight, seed weight, vein weight, number of seeds, pod weight, pulp per cent and vein per cent except seed per cent and shell per cent. Path analysis studies revealed that seed weight, pod length, number of seeds and vein weight had positive direct effect on pod yield per tree. Keywords: Genotypic correlation, phenotypic correlation, genotypic path analysis, phenotypic path analysis Introduction Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) is a hardwood evergreen monotypic genus, multipurpose tree species belongs to dicotyledonous family Leguminosae and sub-family Ceasalpinae. It is a diploid species with somatic chromosome number of 2n=24 (Kumar et al., 2015) [9] . The species is natural to tropical Africa, it has a broad geographical distribution throughout the world in tropical, subtropical and semi-arid zones with a prime concentration in India, apart from western dry regions and Himalayas. The term tamarind is derived from the Arabic word “Tamar-E-Hind” meaning “Date of India” (Pooja et al., 2018) [14] . It has been acclimatized to many places of the world and extensively cultivated in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, several African, European and central American countries (Rao and Mathew, 2012) [15] . It is predominantly found in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Pulp was the most exported product of tamarind, India is the main producer of tamarind in the world with the yearly production of 3 lakh tons, of which 1.15 lakh tons of pulp per annum exported to various countries viz. USA, Australia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Pakistan beside some European countries etc. (Sinha et al., 2015) [17] . Tamarind conventionally grown mainly for its pulp since ages, which is a chief culinary ingredient. Virtually whole tree has some specific use, but the utmost useful part is the pod (fruit). Fruit encompasses a sweetish, acidic pulp, which is commonly used for souring curries, sauces, chutneys and certain beverages. It is an ironic source of vitamins, minerals and similarly contains more of calcium than any other fruit. Hence, it has a potential and commercial future in the post-harvest products like pickles, candy, juices, soft drinks, jams and confectioneries. The pulp comprises a small amount of carotene, thiamine, nicotinic acid which is used to cure dysentery and it also have some other medicinal values (Pooja et al., 2018) [14] . In traditional medicine, it is used in wound healing, abdominal pain, dysentery, diarrhoea, parasitic infestation, malaria, fever and respiratory problems because of its fungicidal and bactericidal properties. It is typically used in tropical countries because of its laxative, carminative, refrigerant and aphrodisiac properties (Kuru, 2014) [10] . Tamarind is highly cross-pollinated crop, heterozygous and it is grown as backyard, roadside tree even in waste and barren lands with seedling origin trees. Seedlings exhibit a wide range of variation which aids in the selection of the superior desirable genotypes. The plants show high degree of variations found in natural population as the trees are generally cross pollinated, hence they show wide range of heterozygosity. The variation primarily is observed for characteristics such as growth, pod weight, pod shape, pulp colour and fruit yield. So, it is very essential to study the existence of variability among several genotypes based on morphological difference and also by using markers to select the genotypes with superior characteristics for better yield and quality fruits.