Correlation Between Fruit Characters with Capsaicin Content in F2 Population of Chili

Chili is one of the most important vegetable spice crop valued for its aroma, flavor, and pungency for Indonesian food. An experiment on chili (Capsicum annuum L) was undertaken to study the genetic correlation and relationship of morphological and fruit characters on capsaicin content using path analysis. The F2 population was developed from the cross between the high capsaicin content of cayenne pepper CF02 inbred line and curly chili K15 inbred line. Capsaicin content was negatively associated with fruit surface, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit weight, and fruit weight per plant. Based on path analysis, these characters had direct effect and indirect effect on capsaicin content. Direct selection may be executed considering these traits as the primary selection criteria to reduce the indirect effect of other characters during the development of high yielding chili variety.