Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9600
ISSN: 2155-9600
Neha Gupta, Nidhi Shrivastava and Sameer S Bhagyawant
Background: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important pulse crop with several potential health benefits. Providing an affordable alternative to animal protein, the chickpea seed is consumed as food in various platters. However, bioavailability of seed proteins is usually low. This seems due to the presence of antinutritional factors, such as phytates, trypsin inhibitors and tannins. Objectives: This study has been conducted to evaluate the multivariate analysis of nutritional and antinutritional aspects of 40 chickpea genotypes. Methods: seeds were maintained at 4°C with 40% relative humidity. Seeds were grinded in a grinder and the contents were passed through 80 μm sieve. Powdered seed samples were first defatted using chilled acetone and air dried. Nutritional and other phytochemical analysis were performed under ambient conditions of temperature and humidity. Results: The seeds exhibit an average nutritional content of total protein (≥ n110.38 mg-1 100 g), total free amino acids (≥ 292.28 mg-1 100 g) and nutritional minerals like Fe (≥ 0.66 mg-1 100 g) and Zn (≥ 0.59 mg-1 100 g). The multivariate analysis for all the chickpea genotypes studied, based on their principal components, show unique position according to their nutritional status. Moreover, hierarchical clustering agglomerative genotypes as basis for genotypes, grouped into two major clusters of MC-1 and MC-2. The study revealed that chickpea genotypes exhibit divergent nutritional and antinutritional properties. Conclusion: Based on the present study and evaluation, the genotype selection for future breeding programmes so as to develop nutritionally elite cultivar can be planned.