Comparative Nutritional Analysis of Improved and Local Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) Cultivars.

Chickpeas have large variations in their types and nutrient composition, owing to diverse environmental conditions, breeding techniques, and cultivars. Thirty-one improved varieties of chickpeas bred for various agronomic traits like high yield, resistance to diseases, and tolerance to abiotic stress were analyzed for their nutrient composition, along with two local varieties. They were found to be rich in proteins (16.09-26.22 g/100 g) and dietary fiber (10.33-26.33 g/100 g) with moderate amounts of available carbohydrates (34.20-54.72 g/100 g) and to have a significant quantity of minerals like calcium (127.50-183.86 mg/100 g), iron (4.55-8.33 mg/100 g), and phosphorous (285.92-528.31 mg/100 g). They were found to be similar (fat, carbohydrates, dietary fiber) or statistically higher (protein, ash) than the local varieties for all the nutrient parameters that were analyzed. A significant difference was also found between the desi and kabuli varieties, where the desi variety was found to have significantly lower fat and available carbohydrates but high dietary fiber content. This study signifies that the varietal differences in nutritional composition are significant in chickpeas. Varieties like Sasho, ICCV 96030, and Teketay showed desirable nutritional qualities associated with moisture, protein, dietary fiber, and minerals like zinc, phosphorous, iron, copper, and calcium. This data will be beneficial for manufacturers in the product development and value addition industries for the selection of varieties ideal for their needs since the nutrient component also confers several functional and physiochemical properties to the chickpea seed besides providing a nutritionally diverse diet.

Accurate assessment of macronutrients and micro-elements of ten newly developed green gram (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) cultivars grown in Uttar Pradesh, India.

BACKGROUND: Green gram is a rich source of protein, carbohydrates, dietary fibre, and minerals. However, accurate data on the nutritional composition of green gram remains scarce since most researchers reported the carbohydrate content using the 'by difference method'. The objective of the current study is to accurately estimate the nutritional and mineral composition of green gram (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek). RESULTS: Ten newly developed varieties and three local varieties of green gram were subjected to proximate and mineral composition analysis. The green gram varieties differed significantly (P < 0.05) for proximate and mineral content. From the results, they contain 62.5 to 84.6 g/kg of moisture, 28.3-37.4 g/kg of ash, 21.9-3.08 g/kg of fat, 484.6-535.7 g/kg of carbohydrate, 228.7-277.6 g/kg of protein, and 118.3-157.9 g/kg of dietary fibre. The most abundant mineral found was phosphorus, ranging 2716.66-4473.49 mg/kg followed by 3183.31-3597.61 mg/kg of potassium, 1506.51-1713.93 mg/kg of magnesium, 166.38-340.62 mg/kg of calcium, 40.16-348.79 mg/kg of iron, 27.60-34.35 mg/kg of zinc, 5.95-12.86 mg/kg of copper and 8.65-19.47 mg/kg of manganese. CONCLUSION: The newly developed varieties of green gram showed high protein and dietary fibre content, while the local varieties were high in calcium and iron. Hence, both types of varieties are nutritionally significant. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.