Diversity and divergence in domesticated and wild Jamun (Syzygium cumini) genotypes of Pakistan

Abstract Jamun (Syzygium cumini L.) is a high valued evergreen tree with medicinal importance, but still a minor fruit crop of Pakistan. Information regarding jamun genetic resources of Pakistan is missing. Even, its complete potential is not yet discovered. Therefore, research was designed to explore the genetic variation among jamun accessions collected from different growing regions of Pakistan. Among all the samples collected, pulp percentage varied from 49 to 92 % approximately. The highest pulp percentage was observed in TUK-03 and minimum was observed in SKUK-02. Weight of fruit (pulp + seed) varied from 2.67 (SKD-01) to 12.63 g (SFM-08). Data related to biochemical parameters also revealed variability. TSS (10.8–20.3 %) and TA (0.64–1.69 %) varied among accessions. In SFG-07, maximum phenolic content was observed (318.6 mg GAE/100 g) and minimum (23.00 mg GAE/100 g) in MWD-01. PCA biplot exhibited the highest phenotypic variability in SFM-08, SFS-02, TUK-03 and KDC-04. Dendrogram constructed from agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) grouped the accessions into 3 diverse clusters. Qualitative and quantitative characters revealed large variability among jamun accessions, which can help in selection of parental material for future breeding programs.