Searching rice cultivars or variety with good processing and high in important essential nutrients are prime important in the present context of rice research. The north eastern hill region of India which is a mega biodiversity hot spot of the world has numerous cultivars of rice with tremendous potential of high quality rice. Eighteen indigenous cultivars of Tripura, a north eastern hill state of India were subjected to the study. Majority of the cultivars were of short bold grain type. Eleven cultivars were aromatic type with one cultivar of strong aroma comparable to Basmati rice. Eleven cultivars were found to possess higher hulling percentage more than 65% and six cultivars with more than 65% out turn. Majority of the cultivars had low amylose contents (<20%). Four cultivars were having higher total crude protein (>10%), six cultivars were having higher iron contents (>10ppm). In most of the characters, heritability (h 2 ) was more than the genetic advance indicating more of environmental effect. Amylose, crude fibre and iron, genetic advance was high; selection for these traits will improve the genotypic value of selected plants over the parents. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was found in iron and amylose. The association of crude protein is significant but negative with carbohydrates and amylose, while with crude fat and zinc, the association is significant and positive. Carbohydrate was significantly and positively correlated with ash percent and iron concentration and negatively associated with total fat. There was no significant correlation between carbohydrate and amylose.
The northeastern hills of India are endowed with rich source of rice germplasm, which may be safely estimated about 9,000 accessions, excluding the redundancies. Even though much of the germplasm have been collected, studies on nutritional aspects of these local cultivars are still lacking. Fifteen important indigenous rice genotypes collected from different rice growing ecosystem of this region were studied for physical and nutritional qualities. Kernel color of the genotypes varied from white to dark purple. All the genotypes except Manipuri were of bold-grain type. Most of the genotypes studied have fat contents more than 2.0%. The protein content was found higher in Chahou angouba and Naga special. Five cultivars were identified as high-protein cultivars of rice, with 10-12.07% protein content. Amylose content varied from 2.27 to 24.5%. Most of long-grained genotypes recorded lesser amylose than short grained. Chahou varieties were found aromatic and glutinous, which demand higher market prices in local market.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONThe north-eastern hills of India are endowed with rich source of rice germplasm, and much of the germplasm have been collected, but studies on basic and advanced nutritional aspects of these local cultivars are still lacking. This part of India has valuable rice genotypes of strong aroma, glutinous characters and slender grains with high amount of protein, fat and fiber. 686 Having not known to the rest of the world and even to indigenous end users, some of such cultivars have already been lost, and some more are at the verge of extinction. Quality evaluation done in the present study provided useful information on their commercial exploitation and utilization in breeding programs of nutritional enhancement of rice to fight malnutrition among rice-consuming population, which is largest in the world. 688 TH.P. DEVI ET AL.
Manipur, a northeastern state of India lying in the Indo-Burmese biodiversity hot-spot is endowed with rich biodiversity of rice cultivars including those with medicinal values. The systematic evaluation of the indigenous cultivars for their grain and food qualities has not been carried out yet. Hence 13 indigenous medicinally used cultivars were subjected to grain and food quality studies. The cultivar, Naganap, has found to be of high protein type. Chinachang and Meriunap possessed strong scent comparable to Basmati 370. Most of them are of low and intermediate amylose (<20%) content and have high hulling and milling recoveries with good cooking qualities.
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