Morpho-Biochemical chracterization of amla (Phyllanthus Emblica L.) and Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) germplasm from Pakistan

Abstract

Amla (Phyllanthus emblica L.) and Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) are the least researched food plants in Pakistan although they have ample uses in food and herbal industry. Amla is being cultivated and observed as wild in most parts of the country including Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, whereas Tamarind is mostly confined to tropical areas mainly at Karachi. This study was focused to identify and collect the germplasm of both the species. Among all the collecting sites two types (Banarasi and Sheesha) of Amla were observed at farmers' fields, whereas wild or Desi types were under natural cultivation. Various important qualitative and yield related important quantitative traits were recorded. For biochemical characterization standard Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate- Polacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) protocol was used. The seed proteins were separated by using 11.25% polyacrylamide gel. The plants at farmers' fields were observed with a considerable level of variation. Low variation within Banarasi and Sheesha types might be due to limited number of mother plants by few commercial growers that needed to broaden through more germplasm collection/acquisition. High level of morphological diversity was observed among Amla and Tamarind genotypes. The protocol for total proteins in Amla did not exhibit good quality electrophoregram that is needed to refine for its practical utilization. The SDS-PAGE conducted for tamarind gave 11 protein bands and out of these six were polymorphic. The phylogenetic analysis classified all twenty Tamarind genotypes into seven diverged groups. Although most of the plants were similar on their phenotypic basis but the total proteins gave significant differences for most of the plants that indicated the diversity for genetic material and acclimatization to local environment.