Evaluation of Exotic Germplasm of Ethiopian Mustard and Rocket

The exotic germplasm of crop plants is one of the important sources of some of the agronomical traits for the development of improved cultivars. In the present study, 35 and 26 exotic accessions of Eruca sativa (rocket) and Brassica carinata (Ethiopian mustard), respectively, were evaluated for various 14 agro-morphological and quality traits. Both these annual species are among the seven cultivated oilseeds of India, belonging to family Brassicaceae. These accessions were acquired from Germany. Among the 14 traits studied, the maximum variability was observed, for seed yield per plant and the least variability is observed for oil content in both the crop species. In rocket genotypes EC 447079 was identified as a useful donor for 1000 seed weight, harvest index and seed yield per plant. However, EC 447092 and EC 447123 were identified as donors for main shoot length and siliquae on main shoot in rocket and Ethiopian mustard, respectively. Identified promising donors for various economic traits can be fulther used for future breeding programme.