Identification of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Cultivars by using Morphological and Chemical Characters.

Abstract

At vegetable research farm, Horticulture and Landscape Design Dept., College of Agriculture and Forestry, Mosul Univ., Iraq, the current study was conducted with six garlic cultivars (Allium sativum L). The cultivars'morphological characters have been categorized based on the height of the plant,leaf length, leaf width, number of leaves in each plant, head length, foliage color, number of cloves per head, head diameter, clove length, clove diameter,the skin color of bulb (head) and cloves. These characters possessed a wide range of variation and a good value for identification between the cultivars.The investigation of chemical characters identified 7 Phenolic compounds (Benzoic acid,Quercetin, Para hydroxy, resorcinol, Catechol, Hydrogunion, and Gallic acid) in the leaves'extract with the use of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique. Also, the cultivars showed variation interms of containing the compound and their concentration. The differences between the cultivars regarding the chemical content can be relied upon as a guideline and classification indicator in the identification and isolation of the cultivars studied.