Abstract
Present study was carried out to find out association of some important characters with the yield of active compounds and their contribution, direct or indirect, to the yield of furocoumarin. With this in view correlation and path analysis studies were undertaken. Genotypic co-efficient of correlation (GCC) revealed strong and positive association of furocoumarin content in roots with the number of secondary roots, fresh root yield grams per plant, fresh root yield kg/ha., dry root yield kg/ha., secondary root length, leaf area and leaf yield. GCC were in general, greater than the corresponding phenotypic values. Environmental co-efficient of correlation values were relatively low in most of the cases. Path co-efficient analysis revealed that furocoumarin yield per unit area and fresh leaf yield exhibited highest direct effect on per cent furocoumarin content in roots. The indirect effects were found to be regulating the character association in most of the cases. These characters can form the criteria for selection and improvement in this species.
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