Characterization of population variation for fruit and pulp in Terminalia chebula (Gaertn.) Retz.

Terminalia chebula is very important herbal drug in Ayurvedic pharmacopeia and called “king of medicines” due to its vast therapeutic use. Variability study is prerequisite for any tree improvement programme. Magnitude of variability within and between population suggest proper domestication and improvement tool for enhancement of productivity of the species. In present study, five populations of T. chebula from its distribution zone in H.P., India were selected and fruit and pulp characters of 20 trees from each population studied to reveal within and between population variations. Result showed that there was highly significant variation for all the parameters studied (p ≤ 0.001). Overall, PRR was superior in all the fruit, pulp and endocarp characters except fruit length and kernel length where it was next to BCW. In most of traits, different tree were superior for different traits. Further, very high tree to tree variation within population indicates existence of different races within population. Further, very high tree to tree variation within population indicates existence of different races within population. All the traits were having low co-efficient of variation, higher mother tree within population variance and higher mother tree repeatability co-efficient. Within source variation was very high for all the traits, thus suggesting individual selection within natural population or clonal propagation will be more effective for further domestication and improvement of this medicinally important agroforestry tree species.