collection and characterization of underutilized vegetable athalakkai genotypes (Momordica cymbalaria) for growth and yield characters

•Athalakkai (Momordica cymbalaria) is a perennial herbaceous climber, belongs to the family cucurbitaceae.It is a plant more or less similar to bitter gourd.This is a tropical perennial crop of vines and climbers type found to have India to be the place of origin. Athalakkai is widely distributed in the tropical regions of Africa and India. t is found in South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. It is rich with tannins, alkaloids, aminoacids, macro and micro nutrients, phenolic acids, flavonoids, carotenoids, cucurbitane triterpenoid and phytosterol.

The results revealed that among the 16 accessions, MI-2 (Pudupatti local) recorded the highest values in growth and yield characters such as days taken for flowering (18.33 days), vine length (142.67 cm), number of vines per plant (8.67), number of fruits per vine (12.33), number of fruits per plant (71.67), fruit length (4.93 cm), fruit weight (0.93 g), number of seeds per fruit ( 3.68) and yield (65.10 g/plant) followed by MI – 14 (Chittur local), whereas MI – 12 (Kovilangulam local) registered the lowest values in all the traits (19.33 days; 110.00 cm; 5.33; 11.67; 63.67; 4.67 cm; 0.83 g, 3.33 and 53.30 g). MI – 12 (Kovilangulam local) recorded the highest days (6.67 days) taken for sprouting, whereas the MI – 2 (Pudupatti local) found the least days taken for sprouting (5. 67 days). •Regarding quality characters, MI-12 found the highest in vitamin C (289.00 mg/100 g) and Crude fibre content (6.40 g) whereas MI-12 registered the lowest content of quality characters (284.12 mg/100 g; 6.30 g).