Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is one of the important leafy vegetables grown throughout our country. It has a pleasant aroma and is mainly used for garnishing food preparations. (Anon, 2001 and Shivashankara et at, 2003) Its leaves are rich in Vitamins A, C and minerals. Though many improved varieties are available in coriander as a seed-spice, very little work has been done in improvement of leafy coriander. As such, there is a great paucity of research data in this crop which has tremendous significance in the Indian context. Presently, in the market some local varieties that are low yielders and some types with low aroma are available. Therefore, with an objective of developing leafy coriander varieties with a high yield potential and good aroma, a breeding programme was initiated at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research. This resulted in the development of High-yielding multicut coriander variety, Arka Isha B. Varalakshmi, V. Kesava Rao1 D.V. Sudhakar Rao2, R.B. Tiwari2 and M. Prabhakar Division of Vegetable Crops Indian Institute of Horticultural Research Hessaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore – 560 089, India E-mail : bvl@iihr.ernet.in ABSTRACT Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is one of the important leafy vegetables having a pleasant aroma. Very little research work has been done on improvement of leafy coriander and only a few local varieties, low-yielding and with low aroma, are available in the market. Research work at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research has resulted in development of a leafy coriander variety, Arka Isha, with a high yield potential and good aroma. It is a multicut variety where the plants are bushy, leaves are broad and leaf lobes are short, and the variety is late flowering. Yield is 3.74t ha-1 by pulling at 40 days after sowing, and 11.98t ha-1 by cutting. Leaves have 167.05mg 100g-1 of Vitamin C, with good aroma and keeping-quality. Key words: Leafy coriander, variety, yield 1Division of Plant Physiology & Biochemistry, IIHR, Bangalore 2Division of Post Harvest Technology , IIHR, Bangalore a high yielding variety, Arka Isha. Development & performance of coriander variety, Arka Isha Arka Isha (Coriandrum sativum var. microcarpum L.) was developed through mass selection from IIHR Acc. No. 19528. It has been tested for five years during Kharif and Rabi seasons at the Vegetable Farm, IIHR, along with two Checks, viz., Jaipur Local (Coriandrum sativum var. microcarpum L., Cutting type) and Bangalore Local (Coriandrum sativum var. vulgare L., Pulling type). ‘Arka Isha’ gave an average yield of 3.74t ha-1. by pulling, while the Check variety, Bangalore Local, recorded 2.34t ha-1 (Table 1). Per cent yield increase in Arka Isha by pulling, over Bangalore Local, was 59.7%. By cutting, ‘Arka Isha’ yielded 11.98t ha-1 (in 3 cuts), which was 55.78% higher Table 1. Performance of coriander Selection ‘Arka Isha’, at IIHR, Hessaraghatta, by pulling (yield in t ha-1) Variety 1998-99 99-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2010-11* Mean Kharif Rabi Rabi Kharif Rabi Rabi Rabi Arka Isha 2.40 2.35 3.33 3.89 5.78 4.44 4.02 3.74 Bangalore Local 1.63 1.47 2.13 2.44 3.44 2.78 2.52 2.34 CD. (P=0.05) 0.36 0.47 0.38 0.42 0.19 0.25 0.28 0.34 CV (%) 20.30 19.00 15.60 19.20 3.60 8.40 16.50 14.60 Per cent increase over Bangalore Local 59.7 *Experiment resumed after a gap, for confirmation of results Short communication J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 7(1):91-93, 2012 92 Varalakshmi et al Arka Isha Table 2. Performance of coriander Variety ‘Arka Isha’, at IIHR, Hessaraghatta by cutting (Yield in t ha-1) Variety 1998-99 99-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2010-11* Season Mean Kharif Rabi Rabi Kharif Rabi Rabi Kharif Rabi Arka Isha 12.42 13.24 8.79 10.99 13.13 14.44 9.46 13.44 11.98 Jaipur Local 7.41 7.11 5.27 7.78 7.67 9.90 8.08 8.30 7.69 CD. (P=0.05) 3.05 1.23 0.58 1.44 0.97 1.19 1.79 0.68 1.31 CV (%) 20.60 19.70 12.50 15.40 18.50 16.00 5.65 13.40 16.59 Per cent increase over Jaipur Loca 55.78 *Experiment resumed after a gap, for confirmation of results Table 3. Plant characters of ‘Arka Isha’ and Check varieties Sl. Character Arka Bangalore Jaipur CD. No. Isha Local Local (P=0.05) 1 Days to 50% 50.00 35.00 45.00 4.37 flowering 2 Plant 22.20 21.60 20.30 2.13 height (cm) 3 Leaf weight/ 8.15 6.32 8.02 1.24 plant (g) 4 Stem weight / 2.80 4.40 2.30 0.92 plant (g) 5 Plant 14.00 11.30 12.00 2.49 weight (g) 6 Days to 40.00 30.00 40.0 4.25 first harvest Table 4. Essential oil yield and its constituents in ‘Arka Isha’ and Check varieties Arka Isha Bangalore Local Jaipur Local S.Em.± Leaf Herb Leaf Herb Leaf Herb Leaf Herb A. Oil yield (%) 0.083 0.053 0.088 0.032 0.043 0.037 0.011 0.005 B. Constituents (in relative percentages) : 1. Decanol 27.89 55.19 33.49 53.17 32.31 54.03 2.86 6.92 2. E-2-decene-1-ol 17.11 5.92 19.11 5.88 20.22 5.98 4.25 0.69 3. E-2-undecenal 3.35 6.25 4.82 5.98 3.45 7.06 0.93 1.22 4. E-2-dodecenal 6.93 2.75 8.31 3.11 8.31 3.26 0.47 0.27 5. E-2-tetra-decenal 7.11 3.05 8.35 3.09 8.34 3.94 2.42 0.63 J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 7(1):91-93, 2012 than in Jaipur Local (7.69t ha-1) (Table 2). Means of various quantitative parameters are given in Table 3. ‘Arka Isha’ is a late flowering variety compared to the Checks. Leaves of ‘Arka Isha’ recorded essential oil content of 0.083%, which was significantly higher than in the Check variety. Jaipur Local (0.043%) (Table 4) Bangalore Local recorded a higher essential oil content of 0.088%. Physico chemical composition and keeping quality parameters of ‘Arka Isha’ and Check varieties are depicted in Table 5. Salient features of coriander variety Arka Isha ● High yielding, multicut type (3 cuttings can be taken) ● Plants bushy, leaves broad and leaf lobes short ● Late flowering (50 days after sowing) ● First cutting at 40 days after sowing and subsequent cuttings at 15 day intervals ● Yield 3.74t ha-1 by pulling at 40 days after sowing and 11.98t ha-1 by cutting (3 times) ● Leaf moisture 82.4 %, Total Soluble Solids 17.6 % and Vitamin C content 167.05 mg 100g-1 ● Leaf essential oil yield 0.083%, with good aroma ● Keeping quality at Room Temperature (RT) 3 days, and at Low Temperature 3 weeks, without losing aroma when stored in polythene bags (100PE gauge) 93 (MS Received 20 May 2011, Revised 10 December 2011 High-yielding coriander variety Table 5. Physico- chemical composition and keeping - quality parameters of ‘Arka Isha’ and Check varieties Sl. Parameter Arka Bangalore Jaipur No. Isha Local Local Fresh leaves 1 Moisture (%) 82.40 90.00 85.00 2 Total solids (%) 17.60 10.00 15.00 3 Vitamin C (mg/100g) 167.05 98.36 79.61 4 Greenness of leaves (grade) 4.22 4.00 3.91 5 Aroma (Grade) 3.58 3.25 3.88 Three days after storage in polythene bags at Room Temperature (RT) 1 Greenness of leaves (grade) 3.25 2.83 3.25 2 Aroma (Grade) 3.00 2.83 2.42 3 Keeping quality (days) 3.00 2.00 2.00 Two weeks after storage in polythene bags at Low Temperature (Refrigerator) 1 Greenness of leaves (grade) 3.92 3.33 3.67 2 Aroma (Grade) 3.17 3.33 3.00 3 Keeping quality (days) 14.00 14.00 14.00 Three weeks after storage in polythene bags at Low Temperature (Refrigerator) 1 Greenness of leaves (grade) 3.70 Spoiled Spoiled 2 Aroma (Grade) 2.50 3 Keeping quality (days) 21.00 Note: Grades: 5-Very Good, 4-Good, 3- Average, 2- Bad (unsatisfactory), 1-Very Bad (Unacceptable) REFERENCES Anonymous, 2010, Production Technology of Vegetables- A Hand Book. P 55. Published by IIHR, Bangalore. Shivashankara, K.S., Roy, T.K., Varalakshmi, B., Venkateshwarlu, G. and Selvaraj, Y., 2003. Leaf Essential oils of Coriander (Coriandrum Sativum L) Cultivars, Indian Perfumer, 47(1):35-37 J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 7(1):91-93, 2012