Evaluation of Country Bean (Dolichos Lablab) Land Races of North East India for Nutritive Values and Characterization Through Seed Protein Profiling.

Nine land races of country bean from North east India were evaluated for nutritive values and seed protein profile was analyzed for molecular characterization. The tender pods, which are used as vegetable, had crude protein in the range of 16.44 to 21.47%. Total carbohydrate varied from 14.53 to 19.61%. Lipid occurred in the lowest proportion; in the range of 0.43 to 0.96%. The range of variation for crude fiber was 13.53 to 21.47% while for ash content the range was 6.23 to 9.17%. On the other hand, protein and carbohydrate content of mature seeds were much higher than the corresponding values for tender pods. Protein content of mature seeds varied from 23.99 to 35.51% while the range for carbohydrate was 28.18 to 48.41%. Lipid content varied from 0.76 to 1.93%. Crude fiber contents were lower than the corresponding values for tender pods and varied from 10.52 to 16.77%. Range of variation for ash content was 5.13 to 9.19%, which is nearly same as that of tender pods. SDS-PAGE analysis of seed protein revealed the presence of a total 30 bands and dendrogram analysis indicated the presence of 2 clusters. 6 protein bands, viz. 31.5, 32.2, 33.6, 40.0, 54.0 and 61.3 Kd were found in all the land races and could be considered as protein molecular marker for the species.