Morphological and Phytochemical Evaluation in Some Populations of Allium from Iran

In order to investigate the morphological and phytochemical variations of 17 populations of the genus Allium, a medicinal plant, from different regions of Iran, 13 morphological traits, as well as total phenolic content and DPPH free radical scavenging activity were evaluated. The highest and the lowest coefficient of variation belonged to scape length (59.04 mm) and leaf thickness (15.4 mm), respectively. The highest leaf number, leaf length, and scape length belonged to Dehdasht population and Pir baba ali had the highest leaf width, flower number in umbel, bulb weight, bulb diameter, and stem width. Results of simple correlation analysis showed the existence of significant positive correlations among some traits such as bulb weight with flower number in umbel (0.85), leaf width with scape diameter (0.86) and stem width with bulb diameter (0.82). Principal component analysis showed the cumulative proportion of the first three components explained 72 percent of total variation. According to the cluster analysis the studied populations were separated into four groups. Among the studied plants, the highest antioxidant activity (85.36%) and total phenolic content (6.76 mg GAE/g fresh weight) were observed in Abnik and Dareh Oson populations, respectively. The results showed that there was a suitable diversity in morphological and biochemical traits in studied populations which have the potential to be used in breeding programs.