Variability of L-Dopa and its association with morphological growth and yield traits of Mucuna pruriens (L.) germplasm

Fifty eight germplasm of Mucuna was analysed for L-Dopa using ultra high performance liquid Chromatography. L-Dopa ranges from 2.94% in IC 332432 to 6.91% in IIHR MP62-1. Low L-Dopa accessions identified IC 332432 (2.94%) and IIHR MP95 (2.98%) was highly beneficial to consume as food with proper processing or boiling. The accessions having high L-Dopa is highly beneficial to the industries for preparation of drugs. High L-Dopa accessions IIHR MP62-1(6.91%), IIHR MP21 (6.77%), IIHR MP63-1(6.76%) and IIHR MP102 (6.57%) were itchy types and important for drug industry. Hence these high L-Dopa accessions can be utilised in future breeding programme of Mucuna to develop high yielding cultivars coupled with high L-Dopa. Correlation coefficient analysis revealed that L-Dopa has significant negative association with pod length indicates selection of smaller pods was a measure of selection index to obtain high L-Dopa accession could be used in breeding programme of velvet bean.