Breeding of Fruit and Plantation Crops 2 + 1

Betel vine

Betel vine: Piper betle
Family: Piperaceae

• Betel vine is a perennial, dioecious evergreen creeper. There are about 100 number of cultivars recognized by the growers and traders in India. These are classified based on leaf size, shape, texture, quality and taste. The morphological differences in terms of length: breadth ratio due to sexual dimorphism do exist in betelvine. Male plants have leaves which are narrowly ovate with 1.84 length: breadth ratio and female plants have cordate or ovate leaves with 1.26 length: breadth ratio. Leaves of the female plants are mostly pungent and male plants are non pungent.

Origin

• Malaysia (Central and Eastern Malaysia). It was introduced to India in pre historic times. It is believed to have come originally from Java.
Important cultivars of different betelvine growing countries

Country	Cultivars
India	Bangla, Meetha, Sanchi, Karpoori, Kashi, Tellaku, Mahai, Kariyale, Deshawari, Desi Bangla, Kallipatti, Godi Bangla, Naua Bangla, Pachakodi, Vellaikodi, Mahoba Bangla, Ghanagatte, Ambadi,Bangla, Simurali Bhavana, Ramtek Bangla, Kali Bangla, SB -35
Sri Lanka	Ratadalu, Gelathoda, Kahaneru, Nagawalli
Malaysia	Sireh China, Sireh Malaya, Sireh Hudang
Indonesia	Sireh Hitam, Sireh Buah, Sireh Balawi


• In India two high yielding cultivars have been developed in recent years of which SGM-1 is for cultivation in southern States. DPB-6 was released by Maharashtra state and Bidhan pan was released by West Bengal and Orissa. This cultivar was also recommended for cultivation in North Eastern States under protected cultivation. Characteristics of commonly traded and improved cultivars are as follows

Bangla

• It is one of the widely traded types which encompass a large number of land races of betelvine. It grows vigorously and are generally very pungent. Leaves are having 7-9 prominent secondary veins, petioles are 8-10cm in length and lamina are 8.5-15.5 x 11-19cm, dark green in colour with yellowish tinge. Leaves are cordate to roundish having widest part of the lamina below the middle point, entire and glabrous. Leaves are also fibrous with nearly having 82% eugenol.

Meetha

• Grown mostly in three districts of West Bengal namely, East Midnapore, South 24-Parganas and Howrah. Leaves are comparatively thinner than Bangla, waxy, cordate to broadly ovate, dark green in colour with characteristic pale yellowish specks and having short apex but pointed. The characteristic aroma in leaves is due to presence of the anethole as one of the constituents.

Sanchi

• Leaves are medium to large in size, narrow and ovate with long base, lobes less prominent than Bangla. Leaf margin is entire. Leaves are dark green and fibrous. Leaves are pungent.

Kapoori

• It is grown mostly in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka. Vines are moderately vigorous, highly branched and leaves are narrow to ovate with thin lamina and soft in texture. The aroma is due to presence of high percentage (20%) of terpenyl acetate.

Deshawari

• It produces large cordate leaves with short, pointed, acuminate and characteristically curved apex. It has mild sweet taste which is due to low anethole content.

Khasi

• This cultivar is somewhat wild in character and mainly grown in North Eastern hilly region. Leaf colour is dark to dull green.

SGM 1

• It is a clonal selection from a Palghat type. It is adaptable to all betel vine-growing areas of Tamil Nadu. It produces a higher leaf yield of 109 lakh leaves per hectare in a crop duration of 2 to 2½ years. The vines are dwarf statured with vigorous bushy growth having thick hardy stem with short internodes and multilateral. Leaves are attractive yellowish green colour with desirable pungency. It is the first betel vine variety released by TNAU from Southern India.



SGM (BV) 2

• This is a pureline selection from Dindigul local. It possesses multilateral vines (17-20/vine) with long petioles and attractive dark green leaves. The leaves are moderately pungent with good chewing quality. It is a high yielder with good market appeal. The duration of the crop is 2-2½ years. The suitable season for cultivation was January – March and June – August for Agathi and March – May and August – October for betelvine. The crop is moderately resistant to phytopthora wilt, blight and nematodes. It yields about 49 lakh leaves / ha / year which is 25.4% increase over SGM 1, 33.8% increase over Karpoori and 62.0% increase over vellaikodi. It can be cultivated all over Tamil Nadu and is suitable for open trench cultivation

Bidan Pan

• It is a selection from the local Bangla cultivar. The characteristic feature of the plant is short internode length. The productivity goes high due to short internodal length.

DBP-6

• It is a selection from a local Karpoori collection from Maharashtra. The cultivar has given about 10-18 percent increase in productivity over the cultivars of Maharashtra. Leaf characters are similar to Karpoori.
• Cultivated types including wild and semi wild types should be extensively collected and should be grown under uniform conditions and various traits like yield, quality, disease and pest resistance should be evaluated in wild and semi wild types which may be valuable sources for resistance genes.


• Procedure for selection in the several progenies includes a) cultivars can be inbred to produce seeds and selection is to be done among the progenies varied there from. b) Inter breeding of cultivars and selection in resulting progenies. Induction of new variations can be achieved through mutation; somoclonal variations through tissue culture of cultivars; haploid can be intercrossed to develop heterotic hybrids. Betelvine can be crossed with other sister species (inter specific hybridization) ad the resulting F1 and F2 there from can be studied for desirable variants.