Micronutrient Content in Rice grains of Different Rice Genotypes

Rice is one of the three important cereals and it is produced annually at worldwide levels of more than 600 million tons and will be more than 800 million tons as early as 2025 which have traces of micronutrients. Micronutrient elements like Zinc, Iron, Copper and Manganese are essential for normal growth and development of plant and human. Micronutrient deficiencies in humans mainly result from low concentrations and low availabilities of micronutrients in daily diets. A study was carried out to explore information regarding mineral nutrient reservesin whole rice grains and brown rice of various genotypes having different durations from different Research Centers in Tamil Nadu. Totally 69 rice genotypes were analyzed for micronutrients which were grouped as short, medium, long duration varieties and advanced lines. The analytical results revealed that Zinc concentration in whole rice grains ranged from 10.7 to 33.2 mg kg⁻¹, Iron concentration from 102.3 to 192.1 mg kg⁻¹, Copper concentration from 5.6 to 14.5 mg kg⁻¹ and Manganese concentration from 15.1 to 48.1 mg kg⁻¹ among 69 genotypes In brown rice the Zinc concentration fluctuated from 9.2 to 24.2 mg kg⁻¹, Iron concentration from 71.1 to 165.8 mg kg⁻¹, Copper concentration from 4.2 to 8.8 mg kg⁻¹ and Manganese concentration from 4.9 to 15.5 mg kg⁻¹. The results showed that in general the micronutrient accumulation was higher in long duration varieties than short and medium duration varieties. The results further revealed that in brown rice, the reduction in the amount of micronutrients was small in the case of Zn, Fe and Cu and high in the case of Mn due to dehusking process.