Genotype variability in composition of antioxidant vitamins and minerals in vegetable amaranth

Abstract

Twenty five vegetable amaranth genotypes were evaluated to investigate the antioxidant vitamins and minerals composition and its genetic variability in a RCBD with three replications at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University in Bangladesh during kharif1 season 2012 and 2013, respectively. Significant Mean Sum of Square revealed a wide range of genotypic variability among traits. Vegetable amaranth was rich in iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium and potassium. Ten strains gave the best (more than 5 kg) foliage yield with rich in antioxidant minerals and vitamins. Selection of these genotypes would be economically useful for antioxidant vitamins, minerals and yield aspects. On the other hand, eight genotypes had high amounts of antioxidant vitamins and minerals with below average foliage yield and could be utilized as donor parents for introgression of genes in vitamins and minerals deficient lines. Considering genetic parameter six traits i e., Fe, Zn, Mn, ascorbic acid, number of leaves plant and foliage yield would be selected for the improvement of vegetable amaranth genotypes under study. However, correlation study revealed that selection based on Fe, Mn, ascorbic acid and number of leaves per plant could lead to increase the foliage yield of vegetable amaranth strains. Insignificant genotypic correlations between foliage yield with most of the antioxidant vitamins and minerals traits indicating that selection for high vitamins and minerals content might be possible without compromising yield loss. Based on mean, genetic parameters and correlation coefficient values, five vegetable amaranth genotypes i. e., AA19, AA10, AA3, AA24 and AA7 might be selected as high vitamin and minerals containing high yielding vegetable amaranth varieties.

Antioxidant leaf pigments and variability in vegetable amaranth

“…It demands more genotypes enriched with leaf pigments. We found lots of variations in vegetable amaranth germplasm in respect to mineral, vitamins, leaf color, quality, and agronomic traits in our earlier studies (SARKER et al, 2014;SARKER et al 2015aSARKER et al , 2015bSARKER et al , 2016SARKER et al , 2017SARKER et al , 2018a. Therefore, to fill the lacuna, an investigation was carried out i) to estimate amount of antioxidant leaf pigments and foliage yield in 23 cultivated genotypes of vegetable amaranth, ii) to select appropriate high yielding genotypes containing high antioxidant leaf pigments and (iii) to find out possible ways for improving the antioxidant leaf pigments without compromising foliage yield.…”

Variability in mineral compositions, yield and yield contributing traits of stem amaranth (Amaranthus lividus)

“…Among them only 17 species produce edible leaves and 3 produce food grains (JANSEN, 2004). Amaranthus leaves and stems are rich sources of antioxidants, protein, carotenoids, vitamin C, dietary fiber, and minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium (SARKER et al, 2014;2015a;2015b;2018a;2018b;2018c;SARKER and OBA, 2018d;2018e;2018f;2018g;2018h;SHUKLA et al, 2006b;OZSOY et al, 2009; ANITHA and PONBAVANI, 2013; LÓPEZ-MEJÍA et al, 2014). Member of these genera are widely used as traditional medicinal plant, especially as antiviral, antimalarial, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antihelminthic, snake antidote (KUSUMANINGTYAS et al, 2006;VARDHANA, 2011;KUMAR et al, 2010) and tolerant to drought and salinity OBA, 2018i, 2018j).…”

“…Although genetic variability and interrelationship studies among morpho-nutritional traits are available in other crops (SUKHCHAIN et al, 1997;LOPEZ et al, 1998;FINNE et al, 2000), such reports on vegetable amaranth are rare. The nutritional composition of A. tricolor has been previously studied (SARKER et al, 2014;2015a;2015b;2017a;2017b;2018a;2018b;SHUKLA et al, 2006a). To our knowledge, there is no information on mineral compositions in huge number of diversified A. lividus germplasms available in Bangladesh and elsewhere.…”

Nutritional and antioxidant components and antioxidant capacity in green morph Amaranthus leafy vegetable

“…A few genera of Amaranthus are used as a traditional medicine for the remedy of viral, malarial, diabetic, bacterial, and helminthic diseases and as snake bite antidote 2-4 . Amaranth leaves and stems are good economic sources of carotenoids, proteins, including the essential amino acids methionine and lysine, dietary fiber and minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, copper, phosphorus, zinc, iron, and manganese [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . Amaranth is also abundant in several pigments, such as carotenoids, chlorophylls, amaranthine, anthocyanins, betalains, betaxanthins, and betacyanins 17,18 and natural antioxidant phytochemicals, such as vitamin C, betacarotene, flavonoids, and phenolic acids 19,20 , that act as reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers in the human body 21,22 .…”