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Background Capsicum chinense Jacq. (Ghost Pepper) is well-known for its high pungency and pleasant aroma. The recent years witnessed a significant decline in popularity of this important crop due to the use of inferior planting material and lack of elite lines. To maintain constant performance across a variety of settings, it is crucial to choose stable lines with high yield and capsaicin content, as these are the most promising traits of Ghost Pepper. Method In this study, 120 high-capsaicin genotypes were subjected to a 3-year (kharif 2017, 2018 and 2019) stability investigation utilizing two well-known stability methods: Eberhart-Russell (ER) and additive main effects and multiple interaction (AMMI). Three replications were used following Randomized Complete Block Design for 11 traits. The experiment soil was sandy loam with pH 4.9. Minimum and maximum temperature of 18.5 °C, 17.5 °C, 17.4 °C and 32.2 °C, 31.3 °C, 32.7 °C and rainfall of 1,781, 2,099, 1,972 mm respectively was recorded for the study period. Result The genotype-environment linear interaction (G×E Lin.) was highly significant for days to 50% flowering, capsaicin content, fruit length and girth, fruit yield per plant and number of fruits per plant at p < 0.005. G×E interaction for fruit yield and capsaicin content in AMMI-analysis of variance reported 67.07% and 71.51% contribution by IPCA-1 (interactive principal component axis) and 32.76% and 28.49% by IPCA-2, respectively. Eight genotypes were identified to be stable with high yield and capsaicin content. The identified stable lines can be opted for cultivation to reduce the impact of crop failure when grown in different macro-environments. Moreover, the pharmaceutical and spice sectors will also be benefitted from the lines with high capsaicin content. Further research assessing the lines’ performance across various regions of India can provide a solid foundation for the crop’s evaluation at national level.

Capsicum chinense Jacq. (ghost pepper), a naturally occurring chili species of Northeast India is known throughout the world for its high pungency and a pleasant aroma. The economic importance is due to the high capsaicinoid levels, the main source for pharmaceutical industries. The present study focused on identifying important traits necessary for increasing the yield and pungency of ghost pepper and to determine the parameters for the selection of superior genotypes. A total of 120 genotypes with more than 1.2% capsaicin content (>1,92,000 Scoville Heat Unit, w/w on dry weight basis) collected from different northeast Indian regions were subjected to variability, divergence and correlation studies. Levene’s homogeneity test of variance studied for three environments did not show significant deviation and so homogeneity of variance was reasonably met for analysis of variance study. Genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was highest for fruit yield per plant (33.702, 36.200, respectively), followed by number of fruits per plant (29.583, 33.014, respectively) and capsaicin content (25.283, 26.362, respectively). The trait number of fruits per plant had maximum direct contribution to fruit yield per plant and the trait fruit yield per plant towards capsaicin content in the correlation study. High heritability with high genetic advance, which is the most favored selection criteria was observed for fruit yield per plant, number of fruits per plant, capsaicin content, fruit length and fruit girth. The genetic divergence study partitioned the genotypes into 20 clusters, where fruit yield per plant contributed maximum towards total divergence. Principal components analysis (PCA) studied to determine the largest contributor of variation showed 73.48% of the total variability, of which the PC1 and PC2 contributed 34.59% and 16.81% respectively.