Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

DOI 10.1007/s10681-014-1097-1

Diversity evaluation of morphological traits and allicin

content in garlic (Allium sativum L.) from China
Haiping Wang Xixiang Li Di Shen
Yang Oiu Jiangping Song

Received: 6 September 2013 / Accepted: 5 March 2014 / Published online: 20 March 2014
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract China has a long history in garlic cultivation

and is the biggest country of garlic production in the
world. 375 accessions of garlic from 23 provinces and
areas in China has been collected and preserved in
national germplasm repository for vegetatively propagated vegetables in Beijing since 2002. However, the
genetic background and diversity of garlic from China
has not been well characterized. In this study, 212 of 375
accessions of garlic were evaluated based on 29
morphological traits and allicin content. Cluster, principal compound, principal ordinates, Shannon diversity
index and Pearson correlation analysis were used. The
results showed that the garlic clones from China had a
widely diversity among all traits. Principal component
analysis showed the cumulative proportion of the first
eight components explained 71.35 % of total morphological variation in all accessions. Germplasm cluster

H. Wang (&)  X. Li (&)  D. Shen  Y. Oiu  J. Song

Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Sciences, 12 Nandajie Zhongguancun,
Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China
e-mail: wanghaiping@caas.cn
X. Li
e-mail: lixixiang@caas.cn
D. Shen
e-mail: shendi@caas.cn
Y. Oiu
e-mail: qiuyang@caas.cn
J. Song
e-mail: songjiangping@caas.cn

analysis whether based on 29 morphological traits or

bulb yield-related traits could distinguish all germplasm. All accessions were divided into two groups with
bolting and non-bolting respectively, or into five
subgroups with different traits based on 29 morphological traits. Principal coordinate analysis based on eight
bulb related traits divided all accessions into 6 groups.
Yield among the accessions ranged from 1.60 to 16.78
t/ha, and three accessions yielded above 15 t/ha.
Pearson analysis suggested bulb yield was significantly
positively correlated with bulb weight (r = 0.99), bulb
diameter (r = 0.73), bulb height (r = 0.53), clove
number (r = 0.52), leaf width (r = 0.52). Allicin
content ranged from 0.81 to 3.01 %. Pseudostem
diameter was found to be significantly positively
correlated with allicin content but with the low correlation coefficient (r = 0.23). The result will obviously
be helpful for breeder and researchers to comprehensively understand the genetic background of the collection and more easily select the target accessions,
especially those with high yield and allicin content.
Keywords Garlic  Diversity  Morphological
traits  Allicin

Introduction
Garlic (Allium sativum L.) has been cultivated for at
least 5,000 years presumably having originated in
Central Asia (Vavilov 1951) and has been spread west,

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244

south and east (Etoh et al. 2001). Currently, garlic as a

second biggest crop after onion among allium species
is grown all over in the world. Asia is the main
principle area, where, China is the biggest producer,
occupying 3/4 plus of the total production in the world.
Although garlic is an asexually propagated crop,
and reproduces only by vegetative way, a large-scale
diversity of different ecotypes has been established
over time in various areas of cultivation (Baghalian
et al. 2005; Bradley et al. 1996; Avato et al. 1998).
Different ecotypes display great morphological diversity in bulb and leaf size, color and shape, scape
presence and height, and flower color, fertility, and
bulbil (topset) development in inflorescence (Pooler
and Simon 1993). So, evaluation of garlic genetic
resources both by morphological traits or molecular
makers will make us to understand the variation
between accessions and select out those with our
interested character for breeding program.
Garlic is mainly used as spice and flavoring agent
for foods. Garlic is also cultivated for its medicinal
properties attributable to sulfur compound including
allicin (Taucher et al. 1996). Allicin was proved as the
most important composition which had been used for
human, animal and plants to fight against kinds of
diseases (Tucak et al. 2009). Plant and animal studies
published indicated that allicin has potential antibacterial
and anti-fungal properties and positive pharmaceutical
effect against atherosclerosis, fat deposition, lipoprotein
unbalance, hypertension (Fry et al. 2005; Fujisawa et al.
2008; Lawson 2009; Lawson and Gardner 2005; Chen
et al. 2011; Dugan et al. 2011; Kamkar et al. 2011). So, the
allicin content was the most important quality trait for
garlic. The amount of allicin in garlic is highly variable
due to agronomic parameters (Mayeux et al. 1988;
Baghalian et al. 2006) and genetic factors as well
(Baghalian et al. 2006; Wang et al. 2010). Therefore, the
allicin content evaluation of garlic genetic resource will
be valuable for high allicin content variety improvement.
The collection and conservation of garlic germplasm has long history in China. The national-wide
collection started since 2002. 375 accessions of garlic
from 23 provinces and areas in China has been
collected and preserved in national germplasm repository for vegetatively propagated vegetables. However, the genetic diversity based on morphological
traits and allicin content were not understood well yet.
The objectives of the study are to analyze the variation
in important morphological characteristics and the

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Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

allicin content of garlic in China, to understand the

genetic background based on the morphological traits
and the relationship between the allicin content and
morphological traits. The results will benefit the
further research at molecular level, and definitely will
provide lot information of the garlic collection in
China for researchers, breeders and producers.
Materials and methods
Plant material and field experiments
Totally, 212 accessions of garlic germplasm from
different areas in China were used in the study (Fig. 1).
Field experiments were conducted during 20062009
using complete randomized block design with three
replicates. Each clone planted in a plot of 4.5 m2 by
hand in four rows with 20 cm between and 10 cm
within lines at the vegetable research center of
international agricultural high and new technology
industrial park, Chinese academy of agricultural
sciences. Yield (t/ha) were estimated by the three
replicates. Morphological traits were measured at
various growth stages according to the descriptors for
garlic developed by the international plant genetic
resources institute (IPGRI and GR 2001) and descriptors and data standard for garlic (Li and Zhu 2006).
Totally, 21 quantitative and eight qualitative traits
were investigated, and ten plants from each replicate
were measured for quantitative traits and three times
were set according to different mature time of different
accessions (Table 1). The bulb and bolt are the two
main consume organs for garlic in China. Thus,
the traits related with bulb, like bulb height, bulb

Fig. 1 Geographic distribution of 212 accessions of garlic

germplasm

Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

245

Table 1 Quantitative and Qualitative traits investigated in the

experiments
Investigating time

Quantitative traits

Qualitative
traits

About 20 days
before bulb
harvest (May
929)

Plant height, plant

width, leaf length,
leaf width, leaf
number, pseudostem
height, pseudostem
diameter

Plant type, leaf

posture, leaf
color, leaf
wax

Time when bolt

was harvested
(May 1030)

Bolt length, basal

diameter of bolt,
mid-diameter of bolt,
bolt weight, spathe
length, spathe width

Bolting

About 20 days
after harvest
(May 29June
919)

Bulb height, bulb

diameter, bulb
weight, clove height,
clove diameter, clove
number, basal plate
thickness, basal plate
diameter

Bulb type, bulb

color, clove
type

diameter, bulb weight, clove diameter, clove number,

basal plate thickness, basal plate diameter, and traits
related with bolt, like bolt length, basal diameter of
bolt, mid-diameter of bolt, bolt weight, spathe length,
and spathe width were very important to help us to
evaluate the quality of bulb and bolt.

Allicin determination
Five bulbs and one clove from each bulb from each of
212 accessions were randomly selected in three
replications 40 days after harvest in 2009. Cloves
from each replicate were peeled for removal of the dry
protective leaves and kept in -20 C for 34 h, and
then chopped into small slices immediately. Soon, the
garlic slices were kept in -80 C for 37 h, and then
frozen to dry and finally ground to powder. Allicin
content analysis was done at supervision and testing
center for vegetable quality, Ministry of Agriculture,

Table 2 Basic statistic information for 21 quantitative traits

Maximum (cm)

Minimum (cm)

Range (cm)

Mean SD (cm)

CV (%)

H0

Plant height

90.50

27.50

63.00

58.19 9.64

16.56

1.41

Plant width

70.10

9.01

61.09

35.82 12.24

34.18

1.45

Leaf length

74.00

1.84

72.16

40.57 8.88

21.88

1.42

Leaf width

4.74

0.53

4.21

1.67 0.53

31.87

1.34

Leaf number

10.30

4.67

5.63

7.28 0.97

13.39

1.47

Pseudostem height

42.34

11.55

30.79

27.14 6.43

23.68

1.47

2.55

0.48

2.07

1.12 0.34

30.44

1.40

Pseudostem diameter
Bulb height
Bulb diameter
Bulb weightb

6.54

2.10

4.44

3.52 0.5

14.19

1.4

7.61
59.90

2.23
4.11

5.38
55.79

3.8 0.67
21.86 10.4

17.67
47.57

1.39
1.38

Clove height

4.26

1.68

2.58

2.85 0.47

16.57

1.47

Clove diameter

5.05

0.85

4.20

1.78 0.46

25.68

1.37

Clove numbera

12.60

1.00

11.60

6.42 2.04

31.72

1.48

1.55

0.20

1.35

0.5 0.17

34.23

1.45

Basal plate thickness

Basal plate diameter
Bolt length

3.33

0.48

2.85

1.46 0.38

25.86

1.39

68.04

0.48

67.56

43.06 12.49

29.02

1.67

Basal diameter of bolt

1.41

0.25

1.16

0.53 0.14

26.59

1.45

Mid-diameter of bolt

1.21

0.25

0.96

0.43 0.12

28.51

1.46

Bolt weight

51.50

2.67

48.83

8.48 5.58

65.84

1.52

Spathe length

37.10

0.70

36.40

21.27 5.12

24.06

1.59

Spathe width

2.51

0.38

2.13

0.9 0.36

39.92

1.54

Unit is number

Unit is g

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Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

China according to the method described by previous

study (Wang et al. 2010).
Data analysis
ArcView 32 software was used to reveal the distribution of all accessions from China. Agronomical data
was analyzed using SPSS software. Basic statistics
including mean, maximum, minimum and coefficient
of variation (CV) were applied to compare genetic
variation of quantitative traits among accessions.

The five grades (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) were given for each

quantitative trait according to the divided points
(-1.2818S), (-0.5426S), (?0.5246S) and (?1.2818S)
(S, standard error). In order to combine quantitative
and qualitative traits for cluster analysis and principal
component analysis (PCA), a series of number was
given to each grade for qualitative traits. Shannon
diversity index was calculated by the equation H0 =
Rpi ln (pi) (i, trait grade; pi, the frequency of the
sample within a certain grade). Wards cluster analysis
and PCA procedures were performed by software

Table 3 Basic statistic statistics for eight qualitative traits

Percentage

H0

66

31.13

0.83

133

62.74

3
1

13
34

6.13
16.04

Semi-drooping

134

63.21

Erect

44

20.75

Traits

Categories

Series of number

Plant type

Erect

Semi-erect
Spreading
Drooping

Leaf posture

Leaf color

Leaf wax

Bolting

Bulb type

Bulb color

Clove type

123

Accessions

Yellowish green

1.42

Light green

1.89

Green

72

33.96

Dark green

133

62.74

Absent

Little

84

39.62

Medium

117

55.19

Much

11

5.19

No bolting

33

15.57

Incomplete bolting

Bolting

178

84.43

Flatly spherical

101

47.64

Nearly spherical
High spherical

2
3

47
64

22.17
30.19

White

13

6.13

Light yellow

25

11.79

Light red

3.30

Purplish red

3.77

Brown

4.25

Purplish stripe

150

70.75

Regular multi-fan

0.47

Regular two-fan

28

13.21

Regular single-fan

121

57.08

Single

22

10.38

Irregular

40

18.87

0.91

0.79

0.85

0.43

1.05

1.04

1.16

Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

NTSYS3.10PC based on the 21 quantitative traits and

8 qualitative traits. Pearson correlation coefficients
(r) among 29 morphological traits and bulb yield were
calculated automatically by software SPSS13.0. To
clearly understand the relationship among quantitative
traits which were relative with bulb yield, principal
coordinate analysis was used based on eight traits
including bulb height,bulb diameter, bulb weight,
clove height, clove diameter, clove number, basal
plate thickness, and basal plate diameter. To understand the distribution of allicin content among accessions, cluster analysis was performed based on
unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means
(UPGMA) and the cluster tree diagram was put out by
software DSP 9.5.

247
Table 4 Eigenvalues and their proportions
Principles

Eigen
value

Proportion

7.70

26.56

3.61

12.46

39.02

3.61

2.23

7.70

46.73

2.23

1.97

6.81

53.53

1.97

1.58

5.46

58.99

1.58

1.29

4.45

63.44

1.29

1.203

4.14

67.58

1.20

1.09

3.77

71.35

1.09

0.99

3.44

74.78

10

0.90

3.11

77.89

11

0.78

2.68

80.58

12

0.75

2.59

83.17

13

0.65

2.24

85.410

14

0.55

1.91

87.32

Results

15
16

0.49
0.45

1.69
1.55

89.01
90.57

Phenotypic variation analysis based on basic

statistics

17

0.42

1.45

92.01

18

0.34

1.16

93.17

19

0.32

1.09

94.26

20

0.29

1.00

95.27

21

0.26

0.88

96.15

22

0.23

0.78

96.93

23

0.19

0.67

97.60

24

0.19

0.65

98.25

25

0.16

0.56

98.81

26

0.15

0.50

99.31

27

0.09

0.31

99.62

28

0.09

0.30

99.92

29

0.02

0.08

100.00

Maximum, minimum, range mean CVs and coefficient

traits of 21 quantitative traits among 212 garlic clones
showed wide variation (Table 2). Among 21 traits,
descending sorting of the CVs was as follows: bolt
weight, bulb weight, spathe width, basal plate thickness, plant width, leaf width, clove number, pseudostem height, bolt length, mid-diameter of bolt, basal
diameter of bolt, diameter of basal plate, clove
diameter, spathe length, pseudostem height, leaf
length, bulb diameter, clove hight, plant height, bulb
height, and leaf number. As in result, the leaf number
did not change so much with CV of 13.39 %.
However, there was wide variation for weight of bolt
and bulb with CV of 65.84 and 47.57 % respectively,
which means there would be big potential possibility
to select elite germplasm with high yield of bulb and
bolt from the collection. All the Shannons diversity
index (H0 ) of the quantitative traits were above 1.30
from the lowest of 1.34 for leaf width to the highest of
1.67 for bolt length.
For qualitative traits, almost all grades but absent of
leaf wax for 8 traits were present among 212
accessions of garlic (Table 3). The Shannons diversity index (H0 ) of qualitative traits were from the
lowest of 0.43 for bolting to the highest of 1.05 for
clove type.

Cumulative
(%)
26.56

Extracted
principles
7.72

Variation dissection by principal component

analysis
Principal component analysis of 21 quantitative and 8
qualitative traits revealed that eight principal components with eigenvalue above 1 explained 71.35 % of
total morphological variation. Besides, the eigenvalues
of first three principles were obviously higher than the
others (Table 4). The first principal component was
comprised of plant height, plant width, leaf length, leaf
width, leaf number, pseudostem height, pseudostem
height, bolt length, basal diameter of bolt, mid-diameter
of bolt, bolt weight, spathe length, spathe width, and
bolting, that the traits descriptive for aboveground part

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Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

8N076
8N233
8N078
8N123
8N218
8N042
8N060
8N245
8N140
8N023
8N178
8N241
8N272
8N013
8N038
8N026
8N139
8N263
8N085
8N125
8N100
8N181
8N030
8N208
8N175
8N211
8N324
8N039
8N043
8N036
8N200
8N155
8N273
8N156
8N172
8N168
8N031
8N260
8N025
8N261
8N259
8N268
8N265
8N194
8N258
8N327
8N219
8N264
8N093
8N120
8N094
8N102
8N047
8N065
8N061
8N121
8N220
8N115
8N267
8N186
8N222
8N071
8N195
8N104
8N064
8N067
8N041
8N045
8N154
8N069
8N185
8N232
8N269
8N255
8N275
8N126
8N130
8N189
8N190
8N066
8N001
8N010
8N027
8N170
8N037
8N079
8N017
8N223
8N040
8N072
8N032
8N035
8N201
8N236
8N099
8N256
8N257
8N197
8N034
8N191
8N326
8N238
8N239
8N240
8N150
8N152
8N205
8N147
8N173
8N207
8N151
8N148
8N149
8N188
8N359
8N322
8N325
8N320
8N212
8N244
8N321
8N364
8N362
8N358
8N365
8N248
8N249
8N296
8N315
8N217
8N242
8N044
8N237
8N313
8N028
8N046
8N074
8N129
8N271
8N167
8N274
8N141
8N254
8N146
8N169
8N091
8N097
8N192
8N004
8N183
8N073
8N112
8N124
8N128
8N118
8N270
8N113
8N107
8N180
8N101
8N109
8N108
8N116
8N117
8N266
8N221
8N323
8N246
8N002
8N206
8N122
8N314
8N202
8N352
8N302
8N303
8N367
8N084
8N157
8N231
8N234
8N089
8N215
8N304
8N330
8N329
8N182
8N318
8N351
8N355
8N298
8N360
8N363
8N361
8N193
8N309
8N198
8N127
8N179
8N307
8N310
8N209
8N308
8N019
8N306
8N024
8N016
8N145
8N312
8N096
8N003
8N070

Fig. 2 The cluster tree based on 29 morphological traits

of pant, which explained 26.56 % of the total variation;the second principal component was comprised of
bulb height, bulb diameter, bulb weight, clove height,
clove number, clove number, pseudostem diameter, that
traits relative with bulb yield, which explained 12.46 %
of the total variation; the third principal component was
comprised of only one trait descriptive for leaf pose,
which explained 7.07 % of the total variation;the fourth
principle component was comprised of clove width, and
bulb type were traits descriptive for bulb type, which
explained 6.81 % of total variation; the fifth principle
component was comprised of clove structure, leaf color,
and leaf wax were relative with clove structure and leaf
color, which explained 5.45 % of total variation; the
sixth principle component was comprised of basal plate
was relative with the position of basal plate, which
explained 4.45 % of total variation; the seventh principle component was comprised of plant type explained
4.14 % of total variation; the eighth principle component was comprised of bulb color explained 3.76 % of
total variation. It indicated that these traits were helpful
to classify the garlic germplasms.
Cluster analysis based on 29 morphological traits
Cluster analysis revealed that 212 accessions of garlic
were clustered into two groups (Fig. 2). The first group
marked by A mainly included the accessions which
did not bolt, and the second group marked by B
mainly included the accessions which bolted. Furthermore, the first group could be divided into two
subgroups, the first subgroup marked by A1 mainly
covered the accessions with high spherical bulbs
and semi-drooping leaves, and the second subgroup

123

marked by A2 mainly was comprised of the

accessions with dark green leaves and erect plant type
and erect leaves. The second group was clustered into
three subgroups, the first subgroup marked by B1
mainly included those accessions with bolt length from
36.28 to 50.00 cm, the second subgroup marked by
B2 mainly included those accessions with clove
diameter from 1.53 to 1.80 cm and the other accessions
were grouped into the third subgroup marked by B3.
Correlation analysis among 29 morphological
traits and bulb yield
In the correlation matrix (Table 5), most of the traits
showed high correlation with each other, which
indicate that some traits could be selected for variety
improvement programs to save time and labors. Bulb
yield was found to be strongly positively correlated
(r = 0.99) with bulb weight and bulb diameter
(r = 0.71). Obviously, if there is bigger bulb diameter
or higher weight bulb, higher yield could be expected.
Clove diameter was moderately correlated with bulb
clove number(r = 0.45), which indicates that accessions with big bulb diameter may not necessarily
produce more cloves.
Principal coordinate analysis based on bulb
relative quantitative traits
Principal coordinate analysis based on traits relative
with yield clustered 212 accessions of garlic into six
groups (Fig. 3). The first group included four accessions of garlic with smaller clove diameter, smaller
pseudostem diameter, moderate weight bulb, and bulb

0.01

0.21a

0.08

0.36a

Allicin

Bulb yield

-0.03

0.01

Bulb color

Clove type

-0.18

Bulb type

0.32a

0.38a

-0.01

-0.16b

0.07

0.20a

Bolting

-0.04

-0.02

0.38a

0.09

Leaf wax

0.11

0.14b

-0.09

0.16b

Leaf color

0.02

0.18

0.19

0.46

0.34a

0.41a

-0.05

0.05

0.17b

0.06

0.03

-0.06

0.15

Leaf posture

Plant type

0.13

Spathe width

0.48

0.30

0.25a

0.28a

Bolt weight

Spathe length

0.37a

0.31a

0.52a

0.02

-0.06

-0.05

-0.13

0.24a

0.1

0.13

-0.06

0.24

0.32

0.23

0.55a

0.52a

0.47a

0.12

Mid-diameter
of bolt

0.43a

0.38a

0.18a

0.29a

0.38a

0.24a

0.40a

0.17b

0.31a

0.33a

0.41a

0.24a

Basal plate
diameter

0.22a

0.26a

0.33

0.06

0.52a

0.54a

0.39a

0.75a

0.30a

0.57a

Leaf
width

Basal
diameter of
bolt

0.18a

0.22

-0.13

0.37a

0.38a

0.25a

0.54a

0.46

0.45a

0.67a

Leaf
length

Bolt length

0.19a

0.15b

0.22a

Clove number

0.14

Basal plate
thickness

0.26

Clove
diameter

-0.21

0.20a

0.36a

Bulb weight

-0.20

0.30a

Bulb diameter

Clove height

0.15b

0.23a

0.34a

Bulb height

0.39a

0.46a

Pseudostem
diameter

0.36

0.68

0.32

Pseudostem
height

Leaf number

0.43

0.49a

0.45

0.64a

Leaf width

0.72a

0.47a

Leaf length

Plant
width

Plant width

Plant
height

0.48a

0.04

0.08

-0.17

0.12

0.07

0.06

-0.07

0.11

0.11

0.23

0.24a

0.24a

0.19a

0.11

0.32a

0.21a

0.33a

0.11

0.14

0.48a

0.47a

0.35a

0.54a

0.40a

Leaf
number

Table 5 Pearson Correlation Coefficients between traits

0.42a

0.13

0.1

0.06

-0.24

0.23a

0.08

0.18a

0.08

0.03

0.09

0.25

0.11

0.18a

0.20a

0.36a

0.41a

0.33a

0.26a

0.17

-0.15

0.42a

0.43a

0.31a

0.27a

Pseudostem
height

0.44a

-0.06

-0.06

0.01

-0.04

0.08

0.22

0.09

-0.01

0.12

0.18

0.14

0.39a

0.37a

0.33a

-0.01

0.25a

0.19a

0.21a

0.30

0.44a

0.43a

0.33a

Pseudostem
diameter

0.53a

0.1

-0.05

0.03

-0.12

-0.06

0.11

0.02

0.06

-0.05

-0.07

0.13

0.06

0.02

-0.02

0.31a

0.26a

0.22a

0.28

0.07

0.53a

0.60a

Bulb
height

0.71a

0.06

0.02

0.03

-0.25

0.14b

0.07

0.17b

-0.16b

0.18

0.14

0.09

0.34a

0.28a

0.22a

0.18a

0.42a

0.28a

0.45a

0.27

0.02

0.71a

Bulb
diameter

0.19

0.99a

0.08

-0.04

-0.01

-0.25

0.08

0.21

0.21a

-0.16b

0.08

0.07

0.26a

0.23a

0.19a

0.12

0.30a

0.09

0.52a

0.11

0.26a

Bulb
weight

0.26a

-0.04

-0.01

-0.1

-0.04

-0.19a

0.13

-0.08

-0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.21

0.01

-0.09

-0.12

-0.21a

-0.31a

-0.17b

-0.04

-0.03

Clove
height

0.11

0.07

-0.03

0.04

0.07

-0.09

0.16

0.09

0.09

0.12

0.1

-0.12

0.38a

0.21a

0.17b

0.02

0.14b

0.06

-0.44a

Clove
diameter

0.52a

0.13

-0.08

-0.22

0.25a

-0.03

0.17b

-0.17b

0.12

0.11

0.24

0.1

0.20a

0.18b

0.16b

0.36a

0.14b

Clove
number

0.09

0.07

-0.04

0.14b

-0.09

0.22a

-0.17b

0.01

-0.06

0.07

0.21

0.06

0.13

0.11

0.15b

0.33a

Basal plate
thickness

0.29a

0.1

0.04
0.07

0.23a

0.08

-0.27a

0.70a

-0.09

-0.04

-0.08

0.09

0.57a

0.66a

0.56a

0.72a

0.75a

Bolt
length

0.11

0.04

-0.1

0.34a

-0.13

0.12

0.05

0.07

0.19

0.33

0.20a

0.30a

0.28a

0.33a

Basal plate
diameter

Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

249

123

123

-0.01

-0.03

0.75

Leaf color

Leaf wax

Bolting

Allicin

Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level

0.17b

-0.1

Clove type

Bulb yield

0.04

-0.06

Bulb color

-0.19

-0.09

Leaf posture

Bulb type

0.23

Plant type

0.22a

-0.07

-0.06

0.04

-0.21

0.73

-0.03

-0.02

-0.12

0.24

0.81

0.70a

Spathe length

0.76

0.65a

0.79a

Bolt weight

Spathe width

0.86a

0.96a

Mid-diameter of
bolt

Mid-diameter of
bolt

Basal diameter of
bolt

Table 5 continued

0.24a

-0.04

-0.02

-0.06

-0.16

0.43

0.09

0.04

-0.12

0.26

0.75a

0.38a

Bolt
weight

0.05

-0.03

-0.05

0.11

-0.13

0.75

0.06

-0.08

-0.01

0.03

-0.16

0.63

-0.05

-0.20a
a

-0.09

-0.12

0.25a

Spathe
width

-0.08

0.01

0.06

0.50a

Spathe
length

0.18a

-0.13

0.01

0.03

-0.09

0.16

0.07

0.01

-0.68a

Plant
type

-0.15b

0.12

0.01

0.14

-0.1

-0.09

Leaf
posture

0.23a

-0.02

0.12

-0.13

-0.19

-0.1

0.14b

Leaf
color

0.21a

-0.03

0.04

-0.13

0.02

-0.19a

Leaf
wax

0.07

-0.03

-0.02

0.11

-0.16b

Bolting

-0.25a

-0.03

-0.14b

0.05

Bulb
type

-0.02

-0.03

-0.32a

Bulb
color

-0.04

Clove
type

0.09

Allicin

250
Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

251

Fig. 3 The scatter plot of the first and second principal coordinates by the principal coordinates analysis

Table 6 Bulb yield distribution of the 212 accessions

Yield range (t/ha)
C15

Accessions
3

Percent (%)
1.42

1215

20

9.43

612

101

47.64

46

58

27.36

24

28

13.21

\2

0.94

with more clove number. Six accessions of garlic were

included in second group, which are with lighter bulb,
short clove. In the third group, there were 136
accessions with moderate bulb weight and bulb
diameter. There were 64 accessions in the fourth
group with bulb weight over 16 g and moderate bulb
diameter. In the fifth group, there were six accessions
with wide clove width, and less clove number. There
were six accessions in the sixth group with light bulb
weight and less clove number. Compared with the
other groups, the fourth group possessed most of
accessions with higher bulb weight and big bulb
diameter, and was potential to select high yield
candidate varieties.
According to the yield, 212 accessions of garlic
were clustered into six groups (Table 6), 3, 20, 101,
58, 28, 2 accessions for each group with yield over

15, 1215, 612, 46, 24 t/ha, and lower than 2 t/ha

respectively. There were 1.42 % of total accessions,
three accessions with yield above 15 t/ha.
Allicin content distribution and its relationship with
morphological traits
According to cluster analysis based on allicin
content (Fig. 4), 212 accessions of garlic were clustered into five groups. The first group included 10
accessions of garlic with higher allicin content from
2.12 to 3.01 %. The second, third, and fourth groups
included 82, 9 and 18 accessions with moderate allicin
content from 1.61 to 2.07 %, from 1.56 to 1.59 %, and
from 1.51 to 1.55 % respectively. In the fifth group,
there were 93 accessions of garlic with lower allicin
content from 0.49 to 1.49 % (Table 7). In correlation
analysis (Table 5), among 29 traits, only pseudostem
diameter was found to be significantly positively
correlated with allicin content. However, the correlation coefficient (r = 0.23) was very low.

Discussion
Morphological traits diversity of crop germplasm
resources plays a significant role for breeding program. The variation found in qualitative traits are more
useful in germplasm identification and developing
new varieties, and quantitative traits are of direct

123

252

Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

b Fig. 4 Cluster tree diagram based on allicin content of 212

accessions of garlic

IV
Table 7 Allicin content distribution of garlic accessions
among different groups

II

I
III

123

Groups

Range of allicin content

Accessions

2.213.01

10

II

1.612.07

82

III

1.561.59

IV

1.511.55

18

0.491.49

93

agronomic interest (Panthee et al. 2006). Generally,

diversity coefficient (H0 ) and CVs are considered as
important criterion to evaluate the variation of the
traits among samples and within them. In our study,
a large collection comprising of 212 accessions
were evaluated in more detail than previous studies.
Both qualitative and quantitative traits of 212
accessions of garlic showed wide variation, especially in some quantitative involved in plant growth
and bulb development. Besides, some traits relative
to bolt, bolt length, basal diameter of bolt, middiameter of bolt, bolt weight, spathe length, spathe
width for instance, which were seldom studied in
previous studies were evaluated in our experiment.
Because the bolt is the second consume organ of
garlic after bulb, the information in this study will
benefit breeders and researchers who are interested
in bolt.
Bulb yield is the most important trait for garlic,
and has been widely evaluated by couples of
researchers in previous studies (Jabbes et al. 2012;
Baghalian et al. 2006). Studying diversity of 31 garlic
landraces from Tunisia, Jabbes et al. (2012) found
that the yield was highly influenced by the following
traits: weight of the clove, the weight and the
diameter of the bulb, the number of leaves per plant
and the stem length. Baghalian et al. (2005) found a
significant positive correlation between clove and
bulb mean weight as well, negative correlation
between clove mean weight and clove number. Raju
et al. (2013) got similar findings based on 56 garlic
genotypes. Mishra et al. (2013) found that 20
promising garlic genotypes differed significantly as
to the different morphological attributes In this

Euphytica (2014) 198:243254

experiment, bulb yield was also found to be strongly

positively correlated with bulb weight and bulb
diameter.
Cluster analysis based on morphological traits
performed on genetic resources make breeder easier
to understand the germplasm and select the potential
material among a large-scale accessions with high
efficiency, which were studied on the genetic
resources of many crops (Piyusha and Jaiswal 2013;
Sadegh et al. 2013), horticulture crops include pepper
(Sisaphaithong 2009), cowpea (Simango and Lungu
2010), watermelon (Xiao 2012). Some similar
research could also be referenced. Menezes Sobrinho
et al. (1999) conducted a study to 89 garlic germplasms of Brazil and found 13 clusters. Lallemand
et al. (1994) also evaluated 65 garlic accessions and
found six clusters on the basis of morphological traits.
In this study, germplasm cluster analysis whether
based on 29 morphological traits or bulb yield-related
traits can distinguish all germplasm and will make
breeder comprehensively understand the genetic
background of the collection and more easily select
the target asscessions with high yield and different
component traits from different groups. We clustered
212 accessions of garlic into five groups based on 21
quantitative and 8 qualitative traits, which will help
breeder easily to select out the potential materials in
different groups. For instance, breeder interesting in
bolt production could search genotypes from group B,
and the information would also benefit the study on
true seed production and future sexual breeding
programs. According to Principal coordinate analysis,
212 accessions of garlic were clustered into six groups.
Research or breeder might quest high yield genotypes
from the fourth group which possessed accessions
with higher bulb weight and big bulb diameter.
Besides, three accessions yielded above 15 t/ha were
selected out which will benefit the high yield variety
improvement.
Allicin content was both affected by geographical
and genetic factors (Baghalian et al. 2005). In this
study, the allicin content among 212 accessions of
garlic grown in same environment ranged from 0.81 to
3.01 %, which could be mainly ascribed to influence
by genetics. Although the allicin content in different
studies are not comparable, several authors (Baghalian
et al. 2005; Camargo et al. 2004; Mirzaei et al. 2007;
Gonzalez et al. 2009; Soto Vargas et al. 2010) agreed
that the genetic variation of allicin content existed

253

extensively, which could be employed for garlic

quality improvement. We clustered all accessions of
garlic into five categories according to the allicin
content. At same time, we found that allicin content
was significantly positively correlated with pseudostem diameter, which might help to screen the high
allicin content garlic genotypes from large germplasm
collection. However, the correlation coefficient
(r = 0.23) was unfortunately very low, the validity
between them need further study.
Acknowledgments The research was supported by national
science foundation for young scientists of China (31000910), key
laboratory of horticultural crops genetic improvement,ministry of
agriculture, China national R&D special fund for public welfare
industry (200903018-03), and the National Key Technology
R&D Program from the Ministry of Science and Technology of
China (2013BAD01B04-8), and key laboratory of horticultural
crops genetic improvement,ministry of agriculture. We also very
appreciated their help in data analysis from all members in the
Philipp W. Simons lab of USDA-ARS Vegetable Crops
Research Unit and Department of Horticulture, University of
Wisconsin USA.

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