Nutrient Composition of Some New Varieties of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana)

Nutritional security of vulnerable sections of our society namely, the rural women and children needs to be ensured in order to develop better human resources. Finger millet (Eleusine Coracana), being highly nutritions can augment for providing nutritional security. So sixteen varieties of finger millet were analysed for their nutrient composition including minerals and antinutritional factors. Among them, the variety ‘VL-204’ was found to be exceptionally rich in crude protein (15.58 percent), iron (5.42 percent) and very low in antinutritional factor phytate content (142.65 mg per cent). Another variety VL-326 was high in calcium (720 mg percent). The results revealed that all the sixteen finger millet varieties have good nutritive value and can be used in supplementary feeding to ensure nutritional security of our rural masses.