Yield, Keeping Quality, Antioxidant Content and Some Nutritional Aspects of Selected Accessions of AmaranthusTricolor

Abstract

Abstract-The Department of Agriculture (DOA), Sri Lanka has given priorities to identify new leafy vegetable varieties with high yielding capacity and superior in nutritional quality. As a part of this activity, yield potential, nutritional values and antioxidant properties of some promising accessions of Amaranthus tricolor were studied with the aim of selecting better varieties. Experiments were carried out using three new accessions; 'DOA Red', 'Pure green' and 'Diyapalagoda' along with the recommended variety, 'DOA green'. Yield potential was determined through growth and yield parameters. Comparison of leaf protein levels was done by Kjeldahl method. Carotenoid, anthocyanin, chlorophyll levels and the antioxidant activity of the leaves of four accessions was determined by UV-spectrophotometry. Postharvest keeping quality among accessions was compared under three storage condition: cut stem ends dipped in water and stored under ambient conditions, packaged in Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) film and stored under ambient conditions, packaged in LDPE and stored under 10°C and 90% RH. Shelf life was determined using visual quality. 'DOA Red' contained higher amount of chlorophyll, anthocyanin and the greatest antioxidant activity. 'DOA green' and 'DOA Red' contained relatively higher percentage of crude protein. 'DOA Red' exhibited significantly longer shelf life under all three storage conditions. Polyethylene film packaging, combined with low temperature storage extended the keeping quality by 4.8 -8 fold in A. tricolor. 'Pure green' exhibited higher growth and yield performance and wider adaptability, hence it could be recommended for commercial cultivation.Index Terms-Amaranthus, antioxidant, leafy vegetables, shelf life. I. INTRODUCTIONLeafy vegetables are source of macro-and micronutrients that play a major role in maintaining healthy life. Daily dietary intake of leafy vegetables would help reducing the malnutrition problem since they provide essential minerals, vitamins and amino acids that are absent in the rice-based diet. They are less expensive and easily found in any part of this country compared to other vegetables. Amaranthus tricolor (Amaranth) is one of the popular leafy vegetables in Sri Lanka due to its easiness in culture, fast growth rate, In Sri Lanka, different selections of A. tricolor are cultivated by farmers, but very little information is available on their growth and yield performance, nutritional value and other quality characteristics. This may lead to cultivation of poor quality varieties with low yield [7]. Hence, several accessions of A. tricolor have been collected from farmer fields, purified and subjected to yield and quality evaluation at the Horticultural Crops Research and Development Institute (HORDI). To identify varieties with better adaptation to any particular location, it is important to compare the yield potential during different growing seasons. Together with morphological and ecological characterization and yield evaluation, antioxidant activity also can be used...

Genetic variation and interrelationships among antioxidant,quality, and agronomic traits in vegetable amaranth

“…Among 60 species, vegetable amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) is now a very popular vegetable in many Asian and African countries. It contains a high amount of protein with nutritionally critical amino acids, lysine and methionine, in addition to dietary fiber and high amounts of antioxidant compounds including vitamin C, carotenoids, and phenolic compounds such as flavonoids and dietary minerals (Malathy et al, 2012;Venskutonis and Kraujalis, 2013). The nutritional composition of both grain and vegetable amaranth has been investigated by many researchers (Teutonico and Knorr, 1985;Bressani, 1990;Shukla et al, 2006aShukla et al, , 2006bVenskutonis and Kraujalis, 2013).…”