UP TO DATE RESULTS IN SELECTION AND REGISTRATION OF “SMALL SEEDED” CULTIVARS OF FOENICULUM VULGARE MILL. FOR LARGE SCALE PRODUCTION

The large scale cultivation of Foeniculum vulgare and its taxa is going on in many countries of central and southern regions of Europe, in Asia (India, Japan, and Indonesia), Egypt, Argentina and Australia. Based on practical-technological considerations, the importance of production of “small seeded” cultivars of standard quality came into the center of interest. As a result of four years of individual selection, (1996-2000) three “small seeded” cultivar candidates (SM1, SM2, SM3) were created. In contrast to the registered cultivars, all the selected materials form a relatively small fruits and are able to fulfil the practicality requirement. The 1000 fruit mass of these new cultivars is about 3-4 g and more than 60% of their fruits can pass thorough a 2 mm size sieve. In addition, the essential oil accumulation level in the fruits of the new candidates is relatively high (6.1-7.6 ml/100 g) and the composition of the oil is in harmony with international standards. Registration of the three candidates, characterised by small seed size, was begun by the German Cultivar Registration Agency in 2002. INTRODUCTION Foeniculum vulgare Mill. and its related species have been utilised as medicinal plants and spices for several centuries back (Hornok, 1992). Two subspecies and three varieties of Foeniculum vulgare have to be distinguished (Bernath et al., 1994, 1996). The drugs of Foeniculum vulgare subsp. capillaceum var. vulgare (bitter fennel) and subsp. capillaceum var. dulce (sweet fennel), are commonly known as fennel, and are authorised by most of the European and over European pharmacopoeias, including DAB 10, Ph.Helv. VII., Ph.Hg.VII., OAB, USP XXI. The fruit of both varieties are discussed in the ESCOP Monographs (1996) under the title “Foeniculi fructus Fennel”. Based on practical technological considerations, the importance of production of “small seeded” cultivars came into the center of interest. Our idea was to take this challenge, utilising our earlier results achieved in evaluation of gene-bank collections (Bernath et al., 1994), and select new cultivars producing relative small and uniform seeds. MATERIALS AND METHODS The selection of new “small seeded” cultivars was started in 1996 in Soroksar. The selection was based on plant materials taken from Hungarian, and international gene bank collections (Bernath et al., 1996; Chung et al., 1999). A total of 40 different descendant lines of F61 and F86 gene-bank material (of German origin) and lines from cultivar ‘Soroksari’ (Hungarian) were investigated. As a result of 4 years long of selection, three “small seeded” populations (SM1, SM2, SM3) were created. To evaluate their characteristics, a cultivar comparison test was conducted in 2001, in Soroksar. The Hungarian cultivar ‘Soroksari’ and the German cv. ‘Berfena’ were used as standards. The experiment was arranged into three blocks and field plots were prepared according to the cultivation practices described by Bundenssortenamts (1999). Three replications of each cultivars and “small seeded” candidates were checked. The fruits of Proc. WOCMAP III, Vol. 1: Bioprospecting & Ethnopharmacology Eds. J. Bernath, E. Nemeth, L.E. Craker and Z.E.Gardner Acta Hort 675, ISHS 2005 192 different cultivars and candidates were sown into propagation boxes under greenhouse conditions on 27 March, 2001. The seedlings were transplanted to field plots on the 8 of May, at the three to four leaf growth stage when plants were 1-15 cm tall. The plants were grown in rows set 1 m apart and the individuals were spaced 50 cm apart within rows. After transplanting and four times afterwards, the field plots were irrigated with 30 mm of water. Because of the appearance of a fungal infection, especially in the case of cv. ‘Berfena’, fungicide treatments were applied at two week intervals beginning as flowers appeared. During the vegetation cycle morpho-phenological data was collected. On the 10 of October the plants were harvested and evaluated individually. The essential oil content and quality were analysed by water distillation and GC analysis described by us earlier (Bernath et al., 1996, 1999).