Physico-chemical Studies of Some Local Wood Apple (Feronia limonia L.) Genotypes under Awadh Region of Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

India is blessed with varied agro-climatic conditions which have paved a way to grow variety of fruits in different seasons of the year. The Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh are suitable for the cultivation of wood apple. In wood apple the existing variability is low due to the problem of un exploitation and lack of awareness. Considering the wide genetic diversity in wood apple (Feronia limonia L.) in terms of qualitative characters, an extensive survey of diversity rich area of Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh was done and twenty nine genotypes in the form of fruits were collected from the different locations during 2021-23 to identify elite genotypes having desirable horticultural traits. The experimental design employed in this study was Complete Randomized Block Design. The results revealed rich genetic variations with respect to individual fruit length (5.33-9.49 cm), fruit width (5.57-9.54 cm), fruit weight (113.26-263.45 g), shell thickness (0.14-0.43 mm), seed length (4.04-8.46 mm), seed width (1.95-4.17 mm), seed thickness (1.34-1.69 mm), seed weight per fruit (25.25-31.06 g), number of seeds per fruit (134.50-456.0), among different genotypes. The different genotypes also exhibited wide range of variability in qualitative characters, viz. total soluble solids (10.22-18.14 0Brix), acidity (2.12-6.09 %), TSS/acidity ratio (1.67-8.71), reducing sugars (0.85-1.30 %), non reducing sugars (0.67-1.06 %), total Sugars(1.55-2.40 %), Vitamin C (15.16-27.95 mg/ per 100 g) and pectin content (1.03-2.09 %) among all 29 genotypes studied for their qualitative characters.