Physico-chemical characteristics and nutritional quality analysis of aromatic rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes

Abstract

Aromatic rice constitutes a small but an important subgroup of rice. These are rated best in quality and fetch much higher price than high quality non-aromatic rice in international market. In spite of their importance, pace of improvement of this group of rice has been rather slow. Quality rice are characterized by not only aroma but also by several other traits like grain length and width, elongation after cooking, amylose content, gelatinization temperature etc. Grain quality in rice is very difficult to define with precision as preferences for quality vary from country to country and region to region in a country. The concept of quality varies according to the ways of preparations for which the grains are to be used. Although some of the quality characteristics desired by grower, miller and consumer may be the same, yet each may place different emphasis on various quality characteristics of rice. Physicochemical characteristics and nutritional quality of 32 genotypes of aromatic rice (Oryza sativa L.) were analysed. A total of ten quality parameters related to grain were estimated and three nutritional estimation were also carried out using standard protocols. Maximum variations among the genotypes were observed for amylose content (AC), kernel length (KL), gel consistency (GC), carbohydrate content (CC) and protein content (PC). AC ranged from 2.97% to 20.60%, GC from 20.31 mm to 86.49 mm, CC from 29.83% to 82.18% and PC from 2.35% to 11.69%. In terms of nutritional quality analysis, Ja-Pnah (82.18%) followed by IC-465275 (81.55%) recorded the highest carbohydrate content. CT3-D-4 (11.69%) recorded the highest protein content whereas IC 137342 (0.99%) recorded the highest fat content. The promising genotypes identified in this study by emphasizing upon genotypes for various grain quality and nutritional traits can be utilized according to the choice of the breeder in further improvement of aromatic rice.