Elemental composition in male and female genotypes of betel vine (Piper betle L.)

Abstract

Betel vine (Piper betle L.,) is an evergreen perennial, dioecious creeper belongs to the family Piperaceae and cultivated commercially in South East Asian countries. In present study the sexually dimorphic genotypes were evaluated to know their elemental composition (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, iron, zinc, copper and manganese) and found significant results within male and female clones. On the other side, except copper the gender differences were not found significant. The nitrogen content was higher among major elements in Sirugamani-1 (6.63%). The phosphorous concentration was higher in genotype CARI-6 (0.72%). Similarly, potassium levels was found higher in genotype Kapoori TN (2.83%). The trace element copper was higher in male genotypes Kapoori TN and Swarna Kapoori (36.21 mg/kg). The copper concentration was slightly higher in male clones over female counterparts. In other hand iron was found higher among all the trace elements and higher contents in genotype Kapoori Chintalapudi (84.38 mg/kg).