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Evaluation of morphological and agricultural characteristics and their phenotypic

correlations in genotypes of a Pfaffia glomerata (Spreng.) Pedersen population.

Montanari, I. Jr. 1; Perecin, M. B. 2

1
Centro Pluridisciplinar de Pesquisas Químicas, Biológicas e Agrícolas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas
(CPQBA-UNICAMP) C. Postal 6171 Cep 13081-979 Campinas-SP Brazil. iliomj@cpqba.unicamp.br

ABSTRACT: Evaluation of morphological and agricultural characteristics and their phenotypic

correlations in genotypes of a Pfaffia glomerata (Spreng.) Pedersen population. Pfaffia glomerata
(Spreng.) Pedersen, Amaranthaceae, occurs spontaneously in the Brazilian territory. Their roots have
been used as tonic, anti-tumoral, aphrodisiac and food supplement as well as other popular uses. The
species has been overcollected in the natural environment and the wild populations are endangered.
The cultivation can help to decrease the ecological pressure on the species. However, P. glomerata is
not a domesticated species, and it shows great phenotypic variability expressed in development
differences, resistance to insects and diseases, responses to soil fertility, productivity, and chemical
compounds. The aim of this work was to describe one cultivated population of P. glomerata based on
morphological and agricultural characteristics. Analysis of the correlations between the evaluated variables
can identify more promising plants for root production and other interesting agricultural features. The
following agricultural traits were analyzed for each plant: number of roots, average branch diameter,
plant height, root weight, aerial weight and harvest index. There was a large variation among plants
concerning these features. The mean, the standard deviation, the mean standard error, and the maximum
and minimum values for each analyzed characteristic were calculated and frequency histograms showing
important traits for a breeding program of this species were shown. The following correlation analysis
between interesting traits for a breeding program was also done: plant height x aerial weight; average
branch diameter x dry root weight; plant height x dry root weight; number of branches x number of
roots; number of branches x dry root weight; plant height x harvest index; aerial weight x harvest index
and number of branches x harvest index. We found significant (both positive and negative) correlations
of variable magnitudes between the analyzed features. These results can help to improve the breeding
efficiency in the selection of promising P. glomerata genotypes.

Key words: Pfaffia glomerata, phenotypic traits, breeding, selection, cultivation.

INTRODUCTION diseases related to memory, stress, effects of aging

The genus Pfaffia Mart. belongs to the
Amaranthaceae family and includes approximately
33 species distributed in Central and South America.
Around 21 species can be found in the Brazilian
Cerrado or Brazilian Savannah (Siqueira, 1988). The
name of the genus, of which the standard species is
Pfaffia glabrata, was established by Martius in 1826,
in honor to a German physician called Cristian
Heinrich Pfaff, 1774-1852, (Smith and Downs, 1972).
Because of the appearance and the medicinal uses
of its roots, the species is popularly known as
“Brazilian ginseng”.
The commercial interest of this species is
related to their tuberous roots, used in popular
medicine as anti-rheumatic, anti-inflammatory,
analgesic (Nicoloso, 1999), anti-tumoral, anti-
diabetes, aphrodisiac (Magalhães, 2000), for treating
Recebido para publicação em agosto/2004
Aceito para publicação em julho/2006
and as food supplement (Taschetto & Pagliarini,
2001). Pfaffia glomerata is severely harvested from
nature, promoting high ecological risks to natural
populations. The cultivation is an alternative to reduce
the ecological pressure on the species. However
this is a non domesticated species and a plant
population showing a large phenotypic variability
is difficult to cultivate since this variability will be
expressed, for example, in differences in its
development, in its resistance against plagues and
diseases, in its responses to soil fertility and in
the productivity of the individuals that take part of
this population. Besides, the genetic variability
could be also expressed in plants with different
contents of active constituents, responsible for their
therapeutic effects. For these reasons, and also
because of the increasing commercial interest, it is
necessary to start domestication studies on this
species. The aim of this work was to characterize,
following morphological and agricultural criteria, one
cultivated population of P. glomerata and to look at

Rev. Bras. Pl. Med., Botucatu, v.8, n.esp., p.46-48, 2006.


associations among those criteria, in an attempt
to find out characteristics that could help to identify
promising plants in terms of roots productivity and
other characteristics of interest in a breeding
program.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
The evaluated germplasm belongs to a F4
population formed by 73 fourteen-month old plants of
P. glomerata (Spreng.) Pedersen, Amaranthaceae,
cultivated at the Chemical, Biological and Agricultural
Pluridisciplinary Research Center of Campinas State
University (CPQBA-UNICAMP). That population had
its origin in seeds coming from the region of Cáceres-
MT (16°13’ S; 57°40’ W) and Mogi das Cruzes-SP
(23°10’ S; 46°15’W) to CPQBA-UNICAMP in 1993.
The taxonomic identification was made by Katia
TABLE 1. Statistics of phenotypic characteristics of a P. glomerata population.
The variations in the aerial parts traits were
greater in number of branches and plant height than
in the mean diameter of branches. The most important
traits to improve the productive potential of the
cultivated materials, such as weight, number of roots
and harvest index had also a large variation amplitude.
FIGURE 1. Frequency distribuition of number of stems.
Rev. Bras. Pl. Med., Botucatu, v.8, n.esp., p.46-48, 2006.
47
Calago, with a sample deposited at the CPQBA
herbarium under the number CPQBA-0238. The
phenotypic characterization was made by harvesting
plants individually and measuring the following
characteristics: number of stems; stem diameter
(cm); plant height (cm); fresh roots (g); dried roots
(g); aerial weight (g); number of roots per plant and
harvest index (%) obtained as follows: (fresh roots/
(fresh roots + aerial part)) x 100. It was obtained the
mean, the standard deviation, the mean standard error,
and the maximum and minimum values for each
characteristic analyzed.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
There was an expressive amplitude in the
evaluated quantitative characteristics (Table 1).
Aiming at providing a better overview of the
phenotypic variation found in this population,
histograms of plant height (Figure 1), mass of dried
roots per plant (Figure 2), number of stems per
plant (Figure 3), and harvest index (Figure 4) were
drawn.
FIGURE 2. Frequency distribuition of mass of dried roots.
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FIGURE 3: Frequency distribution of plant height
Pearson correlation was calculated for the relevant characteristics to predict individual cultivation potential
(Table 2).
TABLE 2: Phenotypic correlations for characteristics considered relevant in a breeding program of P. glomerata.
The negative and positive correlations
analyzed provide information of agricultural
importance for P. glomerata. The correlations of the
traits considered relevant to predict the agricultural
value of individuals (Table 2) showed that the aerial
parts data (plant height, number of stems and mean
stem diameter) are positively related with the mass
of roots per plant and harvest index. According to
this relation, plant height and number of stems per
plant can be important traits in a breeding program
for this species, since they are non destructive traits.
This fact makes possible to predict the roots
production of a genotype without the need to harvest
them. The harvest index is an indirect indicator of
the proportion of aerial parts and roots. Plants with
a higher harvest index are desirable, since the
spacing can be adjusted for plants having the
capability to produce roots more efficiently. Thus,
selecting population against plant height, aerial part
mass and number of stems will increase the harvest
index. The large phenotypic variation existing in this
population suggests that considerable gains could
be achieved selecting the population.
Rev. Bras. Pl. Med., Botucatu, v.8, n.esp., p.46-48, 2006.
FIGURE 4: Frequency distribution of harvest index per
plant.
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