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.

Capsaicin is a compound that produces a spicy taste in chili. Inheritance of capsaicin is valuable information for breeders to determine the selection methods and when the selection will be conducted. The objective of this experiment is to observe the inheritance pattern of the capsaicin content of Indonesian chili landraces. The experiment was conducted at Ciparanje Experimental Station of Universitas Padjadjaran. One hundred sixty-seven F2 plants were analyzed for capsaicin content in the laboratory. The results showed the distribution of capsaicin content was continuous using the Kolmogorov Smirnov test. Many genes might control capsaicin content in Indonesia chili landrace. The capsaicin content of the male parent was 4,565 ppm, and the female parent was 8,540 ppm. The capsaicin content among F2 plants ranged from 621 ppm to 14,348 ppm. The average of capsaicin content in the F2 population was 4,814 ppm. The capsaicin content of some F2 progenies showed higher than their male parents. However, some F2 progenies showed also low capsaicin content compared with their female parent. Segregation transgressive of capsaicin content occurred in F2 generation.