Genotype–environment interaction of andrographolide and neo-andrographolide in high therapeutic potential medicinal plants Kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) wall. ex nees) by AMMI and GGE biplot analysis

Kalmegh is one of the most widely used medicinal herbs in tropical Asian countries because it contains many therapeutic compounds among them andrographolide and neo-andrographolide are two major bioactive compounds that have a variety of therapeutic properties. In this crop, only prevailing variability was used for cultivation and other research. The attempt was very limited or nil for the creation of new variability and stability assessment. The present study was undertaken to create new genetic variability in kalmegh and to assess the stability of newly generated mutants. The cultivar CIM-Megha was treated with different doses of gamma rays and a total of 47 mutant lines were tested throughout the course of three different years (2019, 2020, and 2021) to determine the stability of mutants over three years for andrographolide and neo-andrographolide content (%). Biplot analyses using additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and genotype-genotype-environment (GGE) were performed. Using pooled analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was found that there was a significant genotype by environment interaction (GEI) for both components. Moreover, mutants showed significant GEI for both andrographolide and neo-andrographolide in the AMMI ANOVA. The mutants 4, 16, 21, 23, 28, 40, and 5 were found to be stable for andrographolide content, whereas the mutants 7, 32, 20, and 36 were found to be stable for neo-andrographolide content based on the AMMI-1 biplot. According to GGE biplots, mutant 4 was found to be a reasonably excellent performer with stability for andrographolide content, and mutant 14, which produced a significant amount of neo-andrographolide, was found to be the most stable.