Proceedings of the XLV Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy - 26/29 September, 2001

ISBN 88-900622-1-5

Poster Abstract

BIODIVERSITY AND SELECTION AMONG WILD POPULATIONS OF CHAMOMILLA RECUTITA (L.) RAUSCHERT FROM CENTRAL ITALY

TAVIANI P., ROSELLINI D.

Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale e Biotecnologie Agroambientali, Sezione di Genetica e Miglioramento Genetico, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia

roselli@unipg.it

chamomile breeding, oil content, medicinal plants

In Italy, chamomile (Chamomilla recutita (L.) Rauschert 2n =2x = 18) is widely used for flower-head infusion but is almost totally imported. Wild populations are easily found, especially in disturbed soils and as weeds of cereal crops. To date no Italian chamomile varieties are available. The labor and costs involved in essential oil extraction and quality assessment on a high number of plants is an important limiting factor in plant breeding programs of aromatic species. Therefore, the availability of populations with good oil quality displaying high within-population variability for agronomic traits should facilitate variety development. Twelve chamomile populations were collected in Central Italy to estimate the variation for agronomic and essential oil traits and to obtain starting materials for breeding. In 1999, eleven populations, together with two previously collected wild populations from North Italy, the Slovak variety Bona and an Italian selection (Syn1) were compared in a spaced-plant trial. The experiment was repeated with ten populations in 2000. In each year, high diversity was found for agronomic and quality traits, and some wild populations were better than the best check (Bona) for flower head and essential oil yield. As for the essential oil composition, the populations were tentatively grouped into four previously defined chemotypes. Four wild populations appeared equal or better than Bona for alfa-bisabolol (43.1-54.3% vs 43.7 % of Bona) or chamazulene (12-20.6% vs 14.6% of Bona) content. Eight hundred plants of the two populations with the highest oil quality were spaced transplanted in isolated fields during winter 2001. Agronomic and quality traits were collected on a single plant basis. Mass and phenotipic selection are being used for variety development.