Identification of anthocyanin rich okra hybrids through heterosis breeding

The anthocyanin-containing purple or red okra varieties are found to be superior to green
okra in terms of nutritive quality, medicinal properties, antibiotic as well as insecticidal
properties and showed enormous health benefits from the different epidemiological
studies. The present experiment on the development of anthocyanin-rich okra hybrids
through heterosis breeding was conducted to incorporate the anthocyanin gene in the
green podded varieties. For this,five green podded varietiesnamelyHariKranti, Pusa
Sawani, Thakath, AKO107, and BidhanSahebmukta were selectively crossed with the two
local anthocyanin gene containing purple cultivars and developed five anthocyanin-rich
okra hybrids viz. HariKranti x L1, PusaSawani x L1, Thakath x L1, AKO107 x L1, L2 X
BidhanSahebmukta by a specific crossing program. The anthocyanin rich okra hybrids
were then evaluated with parents for the manifestation of heterosis for different growth,
yield and quality characters in them. Three best-performing crossed namely HariKranti x
L1, PusaSawani x L1 and L2 X BidhanSahebmuktahave identified as promising
anthocyanin rich purple okra hybrids based on their per se performance.