Estimating General and Special Combining Abilities for Economic Traits in Turkish Hybrid Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) Lines.

Abstract

Opiumpoppy (<em>Papaver somniferum</em> L.) is one of the important and oldest cultivated medicinal plant used to extract morphine, papaverine, thebaine, codeine and other alkaloids. This study aimed to determine general and specific combining abilities of F₁ hybrids obtained from various crosses and their parental lines for developing appropriate breeding material for future breeding programs. The results confirmed significant differences (<em>p</em><1%) for GCA and SCA in the investigated characters of opium poppies. All characteristics showed positive correlation with capsule and seed yield general commbining abilities. Among the selected parents, Line 2010 had good GCA for morphine percentage & morphine yield and total alkaloids percentage. Rest of the varieties or lines did not show statistically different results in a good or bad term. It was concluded that the maximum SCA in terms of morphine percentage and morphine yield belonged to TMO-B×Ofis-8 and Line 2010×Ofis8 hybrids respectively. In terms of total alkaloids percentage N-207 × TMO-A hybrid had the highest specific combining ability.