Variation in Seed Characters of Calophyllum inophyllum L. and Changes in Oil Content and Germination with Storage

The present study was intended to identify better Germplasm from different seed sources and to assess the variability of morphometric, oil and germination characters of Germplasm from different seed sources for future improvement work. The study was also intended to assess the changes in oil content, germination and seedling characters with storage and identify the best storage condition. The fruits were collected from 21 CPTs from Calophyllum inophyllum L. seed sources present in coastal district Puri, Odisha, India. The solvent used for extraction of oil from a seed sample was first standardised with maximum oil extracted by Diethyl ether (57.49%). The seeds collected were recorded for morphometric characters, oil content and seedling characters where different range of variation was observed in different characters. Oil content, seed weight, kernel weight, kernel length, kernel width and fruit weight found to have high heritability and high-moderate genetic gain, whereas, for Progeny testing higher heritability and genetic gain were observed in germination percentage, fresh seedling biomass, vigour index and seedling height. These characters can be taken into consideration for selection of plant material for future genetic improvement. The maximum oil content was observed in ODCPT-17 (70.05%). The correlation among the all fruit characters revealed that oil content has no significant correlation with morphometric characters of fruit /seeds, germination characters and seedling characters. The interaction effect of storage conditions and storage durations expressed that oil content, germination percentage, Seedling height and seedling Vigour in all storage conditions decreased continuously till 90 days of storage and maximum oil extracted in seed stored under CPD (Closed Polythene bag Kept in Dark). The effect of storage condition irrespective of storage duration revealed germination and seedling characters are found to be maximum in seeds stored under CPD. Similarly, the effect of storage duration irrespective of storage condition revealed that the germination and seedling characters maximum at the time of initial storage and decreased to minimum after 90 days of storage. The oil content and germination drop over 90 days storage were from 57.60% to 40.18% and 75.2% to 44.0% respectively. Storage study found that the oil content of stored seed was highly positively correlated with the germination percentage, seedling shoot height and seedling shoot vigour index.