Genetic diversity in wood apple (Feronia limonia) germplasm collected from Gujarat

Abstract

 The wood apple (Feronia limonia) belongs to the monotypic genus Feronia, in the family Rutaceae, and is native to India (Das and Prakash, 2011). Besides wood-apple, it is also called elephant-apple, monkey fruit, curd fruit, kathbel, and kaitha (Pandey et al., 2014). It is a hardy, upright, thorny, deciduous tree, found mainly in the forest and as individual 'stray plants' in unused neglected areas (Ghosh et al., 2012). The tree has an extensive root system and possesses great tolerance to drought. It produces a nutritive acidic fruit, which is called 'poor man's fruit'. Its nutritive value is due to ascorbic acid and mineral contents of the fruit pulp (Joshi and Jain, 2008). The aromatic pulp is used for the preparation of jam, jelly, chutney, and fruit juice (Pandey et al., 2014). The fruit is much used as a liver and cardiac tonic, and, when unripe, as an astringent for halting diarrhea and dysentery, and as an effective treatment for hiccough, sore throat, and diseases of the gums in traditional medicine. Despite its high nutritive and medicinal values (Ghosh et al., 2012), the crop has neither been given due attention for commercial cultivation nor for the exploitation of the genotypes available in different parts of India.