Characterization of karonda (Carissa carandas) accessions under arid region

Abstract: Carissa carandas, native to India is an underutilized fruit crop with tremendous phyto-therapeutic and nutritive importance. Seven diverse accessions and a released variety were evaluated for morphological, biochemical and molecular diversity. The test accessions varied significantly with regard to all the morphological characters except plant height and number of stipules per node. The accession, CZK2011 and CZK 2031 recorded 30 and 3% higher fruit yield over the variety Pant Manohar while other accessions gave almost equal fruit yield to variety Pant Manohar. The accessions CZK2012, CZK2021 and variety Pant Manohar were found precocious due to first fruiting at three years of age. Seven primers detected low intra-specific variation amounting to 25 % polymorphism and exhibited 11.1 to 57.1% polymorphism in banding pattern indicating narrow genetic base in the available germplasm. The accessions CZK2011, CZK2022 and CZK2031 may be recommended for cultivation in arid zone on account of their higher yield and bigger sized fruits.