Industrial Crops and Products 50 (2013) 176–181 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops and Products journa l h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Adaptability patterns and stable cultivar selection in menthol mint (Mentha arvensis L.) R.K. Lal ∗ CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, U.P. 226015, India a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 10 May 2013 Received in revised form 2 July 2013 Accepted 4 July 2013 Keywords: Adaptability Genotype × environment interaction Mentha arvensis Multiyear Stability parameters a b s t r a c t The investigation was carried out to determine the stability and adaptability patterns of a set of ten cultivars of Mentha arvensis L. in different years in India, namely, MAS-1, Himalaya, Gomti, Sambhaw, Kalaka, Damroo, CIMAP-Saryu, Kosi, Kushal and Saksham, in a multi- year evaluation trial across three consecutive years. In the adaptation strategy the important steps here was to study/assess the perfor- mance of menthol mint varieties in multiyear trials. It was observed in this study that three mint varieties namely, Kosi, Kushal and CIMAP Saryu showed high stability for essential oil yield over years. Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) modal was found most efficient and practical alter- native to selection of better adapted menthol mint cultivars. Based on the AMMI model, cultivars Kosi, Kushal and CIMAP Saryu expressed the high adaptability over years due to its ability to tolerate wide environmental conditions in different years/environments. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Menthol mint (Mentha arvensis L.) is a genus of about 25 species of the family-Lamiaceae is widely used in the food, flavourings, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In addition to being a popular flavouring for food, confectionery and cigarettes, natural menthol has a cooling, soothing effect on the skin and mucous membranes of the human body, making it a useful ingredi- ent in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Worldwide, approximately 10,000 tonnes of natural menthol and 2000 tonnes of synthetic menthol are used by the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and cigarette industries every year (Yaseen et al., 2000; Annicchiarico, 2002; Lal, 2007, 2012). Until about 15 years ago, the bulk of the world’s corm mint came from Brazil and China. China and India subsequently overtook Brazil and, more recently, India has led the world in the production of this useful plant and its products (Lal et al., 2000; Yaseen et al., 2000). An adaptable and stable cultivar usually refers to a culti- vars’s ability to perform consistently, across a wide range of years/environments (Annicchiarico, 2002). Several biometrical methods including univariate and multivariate ones have been developed to assess stability (Akc ¸ ura et al., 2005). Among them the most widely used are the regression coefficient (Finlay and Wilkinson, 1963) the environmental variance (Lin et al., 1986), the ∗ Correspondence address: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, India. Tel.: +91 522 2718523; fax: +91 522 2342666. E-mail addresses: rajkishorilal@gmail.com, rk.lal@cimap.res.in Shukla’s (1972) stability variance and Wrike’s ecovalence (1962). More recently, the AMMI stability value (ASV) based on the AMMI (Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative interactions) model’s PCA1 and PCA2 (Principal Components Axis 1 and 2 respectively) scores for each cultivar/cultivar Purchase, 1997). This AVS is in effects the distance from the coordinate point to the origin in a two dimensional scatter gram of PCA 1 scores against PCA 2 scores (Lee ˛ uvner, 2005). For testing a number of cultivars of menthol mint crop in a number of years the multi-year yield trials are the most important experiments in mint breeding programme. Accordingly, effective model of statistical analysis related to multi-year trials can help plant breeders to make faster genetic improvement in a number of statistical models. Among them AMMI model was found very powerful model for the above purpose. The practical interest of combining high levels of mean yield and yield stability has led to the development of the yield reliability concept (Eskridge, 1990; Kang and Pham, 1991), where a reliable cultivar is characterized by con- sistently high yield of essential oil across the years/environments (Annicchiarico, 2002). The use of a yield reliability index facilitates, cultivar selection or recommendation, as the mean yield and the yield stability are combined into a unique measure of genotype merit (Annicchiarico, 2002). Studies of cultivar by environment interactions (G × E) and sta- bility have been reported very meagre on mint crop. However, no stability and reliability studies have been performed for menthol mint cultivars and tested together in a multiyear essential oil yield trial. The objectives of present study were to evaluate the essential oil yield of ten commercial cultivars namely, Kosi, Kushal, Sak- sham, Kalaka, MAS-1, Himalaya, CIMAP-Saryu, Sambhaw, Damroo 0926-6690/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2013.07.008