Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important bulb vegetable. Sexual propagation in cultivated
garlic is not feasible and this is the major challenge faced in garlic improvement programme.
Improvement in garlic largely depends upon the selection of new variants followed by their
asexual propagation. andGarlic is regarded as a functional food and owes its antioxidant
properties to these flavonoid and phenolic compounds. The phenolic and flavonoid contents in
garlic vary to some extent with agronomic and environmental factors but genotype accounts
for the primary factor that contributes towards this variation. Hence, twenty five genotypes of
garlic were characterised for polyphenolic content and antioxidant properties and diversity
analysis was worked out. The work was carried out in the Department of Horticulture
(Vegetable and Floriculture), Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour. The experiment was laid
out in randomized block design and recommended package of practice was followed for
raising the crop. The results clearly indicated highly significant variations among genotypes
of garlic which also showed marked divergence for all the biochemical parameters namely,
TSS, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, total phenolic content, total flavonoids and antioxidant
capacity, RSA, MCA, nitrogen%, phosphorous%, potassium%, sulphur%. Cluster analysis of
genotypes showed that all the genotypes were grouped into six clusters. Cluster I consisted a
maximum number of genotypes and Cluster VI contained a minimum number of genotypes.
The highest intra-cluster distance was recorded for cluster VI lowest intra-cluster distance was
recorded for cluster V. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster V and
indicating wider genetic diversity among the genotypes between these groups. Cluster VI had
the highest mean value for the parameters like total phenol content (1097.53), antioxidant
capacity (10.15), radical scavenging activities (48.64), Phosphorous% (0.61), and Sulphur %
(8.39). The contribution towards divergence due to the biochemical parameters like Flavonoid
content (19.67), Antioxidant activity (13), protein% (10), potassium% (9.33), nitrogen% (9),
Phosphorous% (8.67), MCA (8.67) and RSA (7.67) were considerably high.