Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Basic Sciences, Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur 176 062
Among collections of arvi (32) and Ghandiyali (37), wide variability in corm quality was noticed with regard to moisture, protein, total ash, fat, carbohydrates, crude fibre, starch, total sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and ascorbic acid contents. Besides, certain anti-nutirtional factors, viz. oxalate, nitrate and hydrolyzable tannins were also evaluated to range from 0.33 to 0.73%, 0.055 to 0.208mg/100g and 245.38 to 372.07mg/100g, respectively in Colocasia, whereas these values were observed to vary from 0.45 to 0.78, 0.055 to 0.235mg/100g and 259.99 to 386.15mg/100g in Alocasia corm collections respectively. The study further revealed that collections JCC-37, AC-21 in protein; JCC-71, AC-21 in total ash; C-10, AC-9 in crude fibre; C-16, AC-5 in carbohydrates; C-6, AC-22 in starch; C-9, AC-13 in total sguars; JCC-71, AC-1 in oxalate and nitrate content in Colocasia, while, AC-1 and No. 5 in Alocasia as well as Panchmukh, AC-18 in hydrolyzable tannin content emerged promising with regard to superiority of genotypes for individual quality trait for further breeding and crop improvement purposes. Besides, collections C-6, C-1, C-4 and C-16 of Colocasia and AC-3, AC-18, AC-10 and No. 5 of Alocasia were identified as multipurpose superior collections based on genotypic rating for various quality attributes for direct human consumption.
