Author(s): Maheshnaik BL, Raju L Chavan, Ramesh S Rathod, Jagadish MR, Girish B Shahapurmath and Manjunath GO

Abstract: Sapindus emarginatus Vahl. or Sapindus trifoliatus L. belongs to family Sapindaceae. Fruits rind is rich in saponin. Fruit rind and seeds are harvested as non-timber forest products (NTFP) because of its traditional use and industrial raw materials for extraction of rich saponins and kernel fatty oil respectively. Plant based saponins have good demand mainly utilized for ecofriendly detergent, cosmetics, pharmaceutical applications like, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant effects, immunomodulatory, anticancer, hepatoprotective, cholesterol-lowering and neuroprotective. Coefficient of variation (C.V.) between seed sources shown 18.82% for tree mean girth and 11.40% for tree height. Sagara location seed source recorded maximum fruit diameter and rind weight of 20.80 mm and 145.50 g. Similarly, highest percentage of saponin yield by KASE 05 (Sagara) seed source (19.80%) followed by KASE 01 (Athani) location sources with 19.03%. Minimum saponin yields was varied with KASE 08 (Madikeri) and KASE 10 (Gundlupete) location source. It was observed that R² value for rind weight v/s saponin yield was positive slope with correlation of 0.154 but, when saponin yield was correlate with altitude of seed sources it was shown negative slope. In present study rind weight was considered as principal component to correlated other fruit morpho-chemical traits of fruits in different seed sources. Fruit rind weight was strongly correlated with their respective fruit length, fruit dimeter, fruit weight and rind saponin yield %. Hence, fruit rind weight can be good estimate to morphological variation of fruit parameters.

DOI: 10.33545/26174693.2024.v8.i7f.1509