Assessment of Variation in Castor Genetic Resources for Oil Characteristics

Abstract Castor (Ricinus communis L.) oil is used in production of wide range of industrial products because of the presence of nearly 85% of ricinoleic acid in it. Any increase in the ricinoleic acid level would be great benefit to industry. None of the existing castor cultivars possess ≥90% ricinoleic acid because donors with this level of ricinoleic acid are not available to develop high ricinoleic type cultivars. In order to search for high ricinoleic acid genotypes, the present investigation was under taken. Fatty acid and oil content were assayed in 392 castor genotypes comprising 335 Indian and 57 non‐Indian collections. Great variation was observed among the collections for oil content and fatty acid composition. Oil content ranged from 38.5 to 53.5% while ricinoleic acid was between 71.15 and 93.68%. Diversity analysis was done using K‐means clustering which clustered the entire collection into 30 diverse groups by minimizing the dissimilarity within each cluster while maximizing the dissimilarity between clusters. Finally, 15 accessions having high oil (52–54%), high ricinoleic acid (91.12–93.68%) and high monounsaturates (92.8–94.95%) levels were identified. These would be of great value as donors to develop high oil, high ricinoleic type castor cultivars.