Background and Objective:Nigella sativa belongs to family Ranunculaceae and is one of the safest plant extracts for human consumption. The present study was conducted to determine the genetic diversity and phytochemical analysis of N. sativa from Pakistan. Methodology: Study was conducted on 35 N. sativa genotypes to assess their genetic diversity using four Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers along with six phytochemicals parameters (alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, phenols, tannins and terpenoids). Qualitative and quantitative analysis were done for phytochemical attributes of all selected genotypes. Phytochemical data were subjected to analysis of variance, correlation and cluster analysis. Molecular data were subjected to cluster analysis based on bivariate data and Unweighted Pair Group Method for Arithmetic averages (UPGMA) using STATISTICA software. Results: From molecular analysis 99.29% polymorphism was found in all genotypes. Pk-020990 and Pk-021915 showed diverse phylogenetic relationship (80%). Dendrogram clustered all the genotypes into six groups in molecular study and five groups in phytochemicals. All phytochemicals were present in ethanol extract and were found highly significant (p<0.05). Positive correlation was found between solvents; ethanol and n-hexane (0.383*) while negative correlation was found between phenols and tannins (-0.375*). Conclusion: Genotypes; Pk-021395 and Pk-020781 exhibited maximum number of phytochemicals (5 times) in frequency analysis based on highest concentration of top ten superior genotypes and are therefore recommended for utilization in future breeding programs. PDFFulltextXMLReferencesCitation
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Najeebullah Khan, Feroza Hamid Wattoo, Israr Ahmad, Ikram Muhammad, Sahib Gul Afridi, Muhamad Hamid Sarwar Wattoo and Mustafa Kamal Shah Safi, 2017. Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Phytochemical Analysis of Nigella sativa Genotypes from Pakistan. Asian Journal of Biological Sciences, 10: 56-63.