Jute is one of the most important cash crops for India,
widely known for its natural plant-based fibre. Among its various parts, jute
leaves are rich in valuable chemical compounds and play a significant role in
both national and international markets. Demand for unconventional potherbs is
increasing, and known medicinal values or high content of vitamin A or protein
or vitamin C has increased the popularity of jute as an affordable nutritional
source. Traditional use of jute leaves as “pat shak” or potherbs (edible plant
parts such as leaves, flowers, and stems used for cooking or seasoning) is
still practised in select regions of India.
The present study was undertaken with five varieties each of
Corchorus olitorius (C. olitorius) and Corchorus capsularis (C. capsularis)
grown in the teaching Farm Mondouri, BCKV, in a Randomised Block Design (RBD)
with four replications during 2018- 2019 (4 rows of 4 m each) following
recommended agronomic practices.
The experiment was conducted in the Teaching Farm located at
Mondouri, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavdyalay, West Bengal, India. Planting was
done in the first week of April and was harvested after one month. Biomass
traits like leaf length (cm), number of leaves per plant, leaf width (cm),
petiole length (cm), plant height(cm), weight per plant (gm) were recorded
along with an estimation of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and protein content in the
leaves.
In C. olitorius, heritability was moderately high in all the
traits except for the number of leaves, along with moderate Genetic Advance as
per cent of Mean (GAM) for Leaf length, fresh weight, indicating that these may
be due to additive gene effects and selection for these types of traits may
always be rewarding. In C. capsularis,
heritability was moderately high for all traits except for the leaf length and
leaf width. Moderate GAM for other traits like petiole length, plant height,
leaf numbers, and fresh weight indicates that this may be due to additive gene
effects and selection for these types of traits may be rewarding. C. olitorius
recorded high biomass yield along with high content of vitamin A (5780 IU, approximately
30 % that found in carrot), which can serve as a cheap source of vitamin A in
the eastern and northeast provinces where it can be successfully taken as a
vegetable as it happens to be one among the twenty-five popularly cultivated
leafy vegetables (shaks) in West Bengal. Young jute leaves, being flavourful,
tender and rich in beta-carotene, iron, calcium, and vitamin C, can be a
lucrative alternative. The criteria of selection for improvement of yield can
be taken in terms of wt (g) per 10 plants, as suggested particularly for both
the species, along with the width of leaves, or leaf length in case of C.
olitorius. It can be stated that the traits, like the number of leaves in the
case of C. olitorius and the traits like plant height or leaf length, in the
case of C. capsularis, are more affected by environmental variations.
Author(s) Details
Debjani Mondal
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswvavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, 741252, India.
Amrita Kumari
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswvavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, 741252, India.
Sourav Hazari
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswvavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, 741252, India.
K Pramanik
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswvavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, 741252, India.
Sri Sai Subramanyam
Dash
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswvavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, 741252, India.
Anita Roy
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bidhan Chandra Krishi
Viswvavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal,
741252, India.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/rpbs/v6/5960
