Aromatic rice has become popular owing to its aroma. Growing demand for aromatic rice has spurred interest in the development of domestic cultivars that offer similar combinations of grain attributes such as texture, cooking characteristics, aroma, and taste. In this study, the most important agronomic attributes and aroma of 26 cultivars from Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan, and controls from Japan, Thailand, and India were characterized. Also $F_2$ populations derived from the cross between(Jasmine 85 aromatic$ imes$Nipponbare non-aromatic) and(Jasmine 85$ imes$Basmati 370 aromatic) were obtained. Tasting individual grains, cooking test, 1.7% KOH sensory test, and molecular marker analysis have been applied to distinguish between aromatic and non-aromatic rice. Diversity for some traits of agronomic importance, such as plant height was detected among countries, e.g. Afghan cultivars classified as tall, and Iranian and Uzbek intermediate and short, respectively. Differentiations of panicle, grain, leaf, basal internode, and culm dimension among rice cultivars, indicating the source of rice diversity in Central Asia. According to the results, 6 of 10, 2 of 7, and 0 of 6 of Afghan, Iranian, and Uzbek rice cultivars were scored as aromatic, respectively. Therefore, Afghan cultivars are a good source of aromatic rice germplasm for Central Asia. The expression between aromatic and non-aromatic, and aromatic and aromatic combinations has been evaluated. The observed segregation ratio of these crosses in the $F_2$ populations was tested by $x^2$ analysis against the expected ratio for a single gene. A segregation ratio of 3:1 between non-aromatic and aromatic combination has been detected, while segregation has not been detected between the aromatic and aromatic combinations. Also, parallel results were obtained from the tested aromatic rice cultivars. Thus, our results suggest that a single recessive gene controls aroma in all aromatic rice cultivars.