Assessment of Variability in Fruit Quality Characteristics and Levels of Some Bioactive Compounds in African Eggplant (Solanum Aethiopicum L.) Germplasm in Ghana

ABSTRACT

 In order to determine genetic variability in some accessions of Africa eggplant, open field experiments were conducted in two separate locations, one at University of Ghana farm, Legon and the other at the Forest and Horticultural Crops Research Centre (FOHCREC), OkumaningKade simultaneously. The experimental design used was the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three (3) replications. The combined analysis of variance was carried out for the data gathered. The effect of genotype, location and their interaction was significant for most of the characters studied. From the combined analysis of variance, location variance (σ 2 L) was higher than genotypic variance (σ 2 G) counterparts for most vegetative traits studied except for leaf area. However, the effects of location on the expression of yield and yield component traits was not very much pronounced as evidenced in the high estimated values of σ 2 G than the corresponding σ 2 L for almost all yield and yield component traits. Most of these traits also recorded high values of heritability (h 2 ). Leaf area recorded the highest value of genetic gain (44243.51 %) whiles stem girth scored the lowest estimated value of 0.26 %. Generally, the estimated PCV was higher than the corresponding GCV for all the characters.

However, the difference between PCV and GCV were observed to be narrow for most traits studied indicating the role of genetic factors in the expression of the traits. The bioactive compounds studied in the present experiment correlated with number of traits with weak correlated coefficients. And also character association analysis reviewed that accessions with less fruits per plant and those with larger fruit sizes got ripened earlier, which gives an indication for optimum harvesting time to reduce lose and enhances fruit life span. Garden egg genotypes 14 – 030, A12, A10, 14 – 026 and A4 produced better yield across locations and are potentially valuable source of genetic materials that could be used for further crop improvement programmes.