MSc.

Piper longum L., commonly known as long pepper, belongs to family Piperaceae. The
species has originated in South Asia. Piper longum is an important medicinal plant used in more
than 300 ayurvedic preparations. Inspite of the importance of the species, „Viswam‟ is the only
variety released so far. As a part of a KSCSTE funded project, hybridization studies were
carried out at the Department of Plantation Crops and Spices, College of Horticulture,
Vellanikkara to develop high yielding types in Piper longum. In the preliminary evaluation
trials, four hybrids were found promising.
The present study entitled „evaluation and
characterisation of promising hybrids of long pepper (Piper longum L.)‟ was conducted with the
objective of evaluating these promising hybrids at different shade levels for growth, yield and
quality and also to characterise them using molecular markers. The research was conducted in
three experiments viz., evaluation of hybrids in pots at different shade levels, field evaluation of
selected hybrids and molecular characterisation of promising hybrids and parents.
Morphological characterisation of the accessions was done using IPGRI descriptor for
Piper nigrum with necessary modifications. Variations were observed among accessions in
shape of leaf, immature and mature spike color as well as shape of spike. Characters like plant
height, number of primary branches per plant and time taken for production of first lateral were
significantly different among hybrids. Flowering and fruit set were higher at zero per cent and 25
per cent shade compared to 50 per cent shade level.
Field planted genotypes of P. longum showed significant difference in number of primary
branches, internodal length of orthotropic as well as plagiotropic shoots and leaf area.
Characters like pedicel length, spike length, spike girth and yield in terms of number of spikes
per plant, fresh weight of spikes per plant and dry spike yield per plant also differed
significantly. Among the hybrids evaluated in the field, Pl 9 followed by Pl 63 were found to be
promising. They were significantly higher yielders compared to other hybrids, female parent and
Viswam. Essential oil content was found to be uniform (0.8 per cent) in all the accessions except
Pl 141 (0.83 per cent). Pl 9 showed maximum oleoresin (15.2 per cent) and piperine (3.47 per
cent) content than other genotypes.
For molecular characterisation using RAPD, 30 decamer primers were screened. From
these ten best primers were selected. Six primers showed polymorphism between the male and
female parents. The hybrids Pl 9 and Pl 63 were closely related with 92 per cent similarity. Pl
140 was found different from the rest of the three hybrids and it was grouped along with the
parents. Among the accessions studied, Viswam showed highest variability from others.
Among the hybrids evaluated, Pl 9 and Pl 63 were found to be promising in terms of yield.
Pl 9 was superior in quality. These hybrids could be further evaluated in multi-location trials to
explore the possibility of releasing as high yielding hybrids in future.