Morphological, Biochemical, Molecular Marker, Gas Chromatography‑Tandem Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Landraces in the Rain Shadow High Hills of Kerala, India

Background: In Kerala, dry hill agro ecological zone is famous for the commercial cultivation of hill garlic. Vattavada and Kanthalloor panchayaths in Devikulam block of Idukki district, India, are famous for the cultivation of hill garlic. The traditional land races a being cultivated by Muthuva tribes has role in traditional home remedies and fetches better price in market Therefore, we investigated local landraces of garlic (MLPD garlic, MPD garlic, and SGPR garlic) along with two released varieties (Ooty 1 garlic, Yamuna safed 3‑garlic) for their chemical composition, bulb morphological traits, and diversity at molecular level. Materials and Methods: Morphological characterization, biochemical parameters analysis, molecular marker analysis using simple sequence repeats, and gas chromatography‑tandem mass spectrometer (GC‑MS) analysis were performed for five different genotypes of garlic. Results: Significant difference was observed in morphological characterization, biochemical parameters analysis of five different genotypes of garlic. Molecular marker anlalysis results indicated DNA level variation in traditional garlic genotypes and found these garlic having high storability at field level and used in traditional folk medicines preparations. GC‑MS analysis results showed MLPD garlic as having 10 total number of active constituents. MPD garlic as having 14 total number of active constituents. SGPR garlic as having six total number of active constituents. Ooty 1 garlic as having 13 total number of active constituents and Yamuna safed 3 garlic having 7 total number of active constituents. Conclusion: This study showed the uniqueness of MLPD garlic and SGPR garlic used in traditional home remedies with high storability at the field level with the presence of high percent of total sulphides and a significant variation at the molecular level.