INTRODUCTION

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is an important major seed spice crop, grown for leaves as well as seed purpose.It belongs to the family Apiaceae, is a native of southern Europe and northern Africa to southwestern Asia. The coriander plants are annual herb, stems erect, branched or bushy, diploid, chromosome number 2n=22. Coriander seeds and leaves contain essential oils, which account for aromatic character of the plant (Sankaracharya and Sankaranarayana, 1989). The seeds have a lemony citrus flavour when crushed, due to the linalool, terpenes, pinene, and limonene, among others (Zheljazkov et al., 2014). Coriander seeds are considered as carminative, diuretic, stomachic, antibilious, refrigerant and aphrodisiac (Butani, 1984).The fresh leaves are an ingredient in many South Asian foods (such as rasams, chutneys, and salads); in Chinese and Thai dishes; in Mexican cooking, particularly in salsa and guacamole and as a garnish; and in salads in Russia and other CIS countries (Moulin, 2002). It is mainly grown in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam in a large area as majorRabi season crop and cultivated in many more states in large to small areas. Coriander is most susceptible crop to aphids in semi-arid region, if plant protection measures not applied on time; it causes nearly 40-50% yield losses. In present situation of agriculture, farmers are using a number of pesticides for aphid control resulting development of pest resistance to various commonly used insecticides, pest resurgence, and outbreaks as well as severe mortality of natural enemies and pollinators particularly honeybees, hence the identification of resistance source against aphids is the main factor to manage the pest.

Keeping these in view, field experiment were conducted at research farm, ICAR-National Research Centre on Seed Spices, Ajmer to evaluate twelve varieties/entries of coriander viz., Gujarat Coriander-1, Gujarat Coriander-2, Sadhna (CS-4), ACr-1, Swati (CS-6), RCr-41, RCr-436, RCr-684, Hisar Sugandh, Pant Haritma, Sindhu (CS-2) and Rajendra Swati for their resistance/susceptibility against aphids during Rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15 to find out the resistance sources as breeding material against aphids.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The field experiments on screening of different varieties/entries of coriander for their relative susceptibility against aphids were conducted at ICAR- National Research Centre on Seed Spices, Ajmer for two consecutive years 2013-14 and 2014-15. The study location is lying between 740 35’ 39" to 740 36’ 01" E longitude and 260 22’ 12" to 260 22’ 31" N latitude at an altitude of 486 m above mean see level. The region fall under III agro-climatic zone of Rajasthan is considered under semi-arid region. Soil fertility status of institute’s experimental field is sandy loam, poor fertility and water holding capacity, having pH 8-8.3, EC 0.07-0.12 and organic carbon 0.15- 0.23 percent along with available N 178.5 kg/ha (low), P2O5 12kg/ha (Medium), K2O kg/ha (low). The area receives annual rainfall 250-350 mm and temperature range 22-36 0C (maximum) and 5-20 0C (minimum) with 64-80% relative humidity during cropping Rabi season.

Twelve varieties/entries i.e. Rajendra Swati, ACr-1, Gujarat Coriander-1, RCr-41, Pant Haritma, RCr-684, Sadhna (CS-4), Swati (CS-6), RCr-446, Sindhu (CS- 2), Gujarat Coriander-2 and RCr-436 were sown in well prepared and statistically laid out fields in Randomized Block Design concept with 03 replications. The seeds of above varieties/entries were sown in the plot sized of 3x3 meter, under specified geometry adopted in pop of the institute. Seeds were treated with Trichoderma viride @ 6g/kg of seed to avoid the seed borne diseases. Plant protection measures were not applied during standing crop to allow the aphid incidence on the crops. The observations on aphid population were recorded at weekly intervals from five randomly selected and tagged plants/plot. Initially, whole plants were taken in to study and later on it was sifted to 10 cm twig when crop was in full grown and umbels during flowering and finally it was considered as aphid population per plant. The relative susceptibility was determined on the basis of grade index worked out on peak infestation by using formulae mean of peak aphid population; σ: standard deviation for insect population) as given below, wherein, the incidence was measured on the basis of mean aphid population per plant.

The data were obtained and transformed in sqrt. X + 0.5 values and subjected to analysis of variance to find out the critical difference (Gomez and Gomez, 1983).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Twelve varieties/entries of coriander were screened out for their relative susceptibility to aphids (Hyadaphis coriandri Das and Myzus persicae Sulzer) and the data on mean aphid’s mixed population per plant were taken for two consecutive years and presented in Table 1 and 2, revealed that, none of the varieties/entries was free from aphid infestation. Initially, the aphid infestation started in second half of December (35 DAS) with very less in populations in both the years. In 2013-14, the aphid infestation started on second half of December with few aphids per plant on some coriander varieties, whereas RCr- 684, RCr-446 and ACr-1 were remained free from the aphid infestation at this stage. Then after, pest infestation increased gradually and reached to its maximum during February month with three peaks depending upon the varieties/entries (Table 1). The coriander variety RCr-684 received lowest aphid infestation (23.70 aphids/plant) followed by RCr-446 and ACr-1 with 24.10 and 24.20 aphids/plant, respectively. The maximum aphid infestation was observed on variety Swati (CS-6) 71.10 aphids/plant followed by Sadhna (CS-4) Sindhu (CS-2) and RCr- 41 having aphids population of 66.40, 65.00 and 64.20 aphids/plant, respectively. The remaining varieties/ entries were received the aphid infestation with ranged from 41.70 to 52.30 aphids/plant. Over the season, the lowest mean aphid infestation (9.21 aphids/plant) was recorded on variety RCr-684 followed by ACr-1 and RCr-446, whereas, maximum on Swati (CS-6) and Sadhna (CS-4) and Sindhu (CS- 2). The highest yield of coriander seed was also recorded from the variety RCr-684 (16.82 q/ha) followed by ACr-1 (15.74q/ha) and RCr-446 (12.89 q/ha), while minimum yield 4.14 q/ha was obtained from the variety RCr-41, which was highly susceptible to aphid.

Table 1
Screening of popular coriander varieties for their relative susceptibility against aphids during 2013-14

Table 2
Screening of popular coriander varieties for their relative susceptibility against aphids during 2014-15

Similarly, in 2014-15 the aphid infestation started in third week of December with few aphids per plant on some coriander varieties, whereas RCr-684, RCr- 446 and ACr-1 were remained free from the aphid infestation at this stage. Then after pest infestation increased gradually and reached to its maximum during the month of February with three peaks i.e. 7th February (on varieties Rajendra Swati, and Pant Haritma), 14th February (on varieties Gujarat Coriander-1, RCr-684, Sadhna (CS-4), RCr-446, Sindhu (CS-2) and RCr-436) and 21stFebruary (RCr- 41, Swati (CS-6) and Gujarat Coriander-2) depending upon the varieties/entries (Table 2). The coriander variety RCr-684 received lowest aphid infestation (27.20 aphids/plant) followed by RCr-446 and ACr-1 with 28.80 and 29.00 aphids/plant, respectively. Meenaet al. (2002b) also reported that coriander varieties RCr-446 and RCr-436 were found least susceptible against aphids are in accordance the present finding. These three varieties were found statistically at par for aphid infestation. The maximum aphid infestation was observed on variety Swati (CS-6) 76.66 aphids/plant followed by Sadhna (CS-4) Sindhu (CS-2) and RCr-41 having aphids population of 74.80, 74.00 and 65.10 aphids/plant, respectively. The remaining varieties/entries were received the aphid infestation with ranged from 41.80 to 51.33 aphids/plant. The highest yield of coriander seed was recorded from the variety RCr-684 (16.63 q/ha) followed by RCr-446 (14.89 q/ha) and ACr-1 (14.75q/ ha), while minimum yield 6.00 q/ha was obtained from the variety Sadhna (CS-4) and RCr-41 (6.65q/ha), which were highly susceptible to aphid. Based on two year results, it was evident from the study that the coriander varieties i.e. RCr-684 (25.45 aphids/plant), RCr-446 (26.45 aphids/plant), ACr-1 (26.60 aphids/ plant), RCr-436 (41.75 aphids/plant), Gujarat Coriander-2 (42.45 aphids/plant), Pant Haritma (43.50 aphids/plant) and Gujarat Coriander-1 (43.70 aphids/ plant) are moderately susceptible, whereas, Swati (CS-6), Sadhna (CS-4) and Sindhu (CS-2) with aphid population 73.88, 70.60 and 69.50 aphids/plant, respectively were categorized as highly susceptible varieties of coriander against aphids under field conditions.

REFERENCES

Butani, D.K. 1984. Spices and pest problems; coriander. Pesticides, 18(9): 15-17.

Gomez, A.K. and Gomez, A.A. (1983). Statistical procedure for agricultural research. 2ndEdn. Wiley Interscience Publication, New York, pp 25.

Meena, P.C., Sharma, J.K. and Noor, A. 2002b. Varietal reaction of coriander Coriandrum sativum L. and impact of date of sowing in incidence of aphid Hyadaphis coriandri Das. Indian Journal of Entomology,64(1): 58-62.

Moulin, Leo (2002). Eating and Drinking in Europe: A Cultural History. Mercatorfonds. p. 168.

Sankaracharya, N.B. and Sankaranarayana, M.L. 1989. Processing and flavor quality of seed spices. First National Seminar Seed Spices, Jaipur, 24-25 October, pp. 301-328.

Zheljazkov, V. D.; Astatkie, T; Schlegel, V (2014). Hydrodistillation extraction time effect on essential oil yield, composition and bioactivity of coriander oil. Journal of Oleo Science.63 (9): 857–65.

Author notes

narottammeena@gmail.com