Pattern of Genotypic Diversity in Indigenous Castor (Ricinus communis L.) Genotypes

Abstract

Castor is a member of the Euphorbiaceae family that is found across all the tropical and semi-tropical regions of the world (Weiss, 2000). Castor is one of the ancient and important non-edible oilseeds that has immense industrial and medicinal value. Castor is an ideal candidate for production of high value, industrial and oil feed-stocks because of the very high oil content (48-56%) of the seed. Castor oil is used in more than 700 industrial products and its demand is increasing by 3-5 percent per annum (Anjani 2012). India is the largest exporter of castor oil in the world market. Castor plant has unique ability to produce oils with extremely high levels of ricinolic acid (80-90%)(Brigham, 1993; Hegde and SudhakaraBabu, 2002). Historically, commercial production of castor has been limited by concerns about the toxins found in castor seed, unstable global market for the oil and lack of efficient technologies to produce and process the crop (Brigham, 1993). The ultimate goal of any plant breeding programme is to improve plant traits for agronomic and economic superiority. Genetic improvement of castor has the potential to overcome many production constraints. Genetic diversity in crop plants is essential to sustain level of high productivity (Rabbani et al., 2010). It is an