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. 2023 Jul 12;11(9):5446-5459.
doi: 10.1002/fsn3.3502. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Agro-morphological and nutritional assessment of chenopod and quinoa germplasm-Highly adaptable potential crops

Rakesh Bhardwaj  1 , Rashmi Yadav  1 , Harinder Vishwakarma  1 , Kriti Sharma  1 , Rahul Chandora  1 , Jai Chand Rana  2 , Amritbir Riar  3
Affiliations

Agro-morphological and nutritional assessment of chenopod and quinoa germplasm-Highly adaptable potential crops

Rakesh Bhardwaj et al. Food Sci Nutr. .

Abstract

Quinoa belongs to the family Chenopodiaceae, a pseudo-grain having high nutritional value and is considered an underexploited vegetable crop with the potential to improve the nutritional security of millions. Therefore, assessing genetic diversity in Chenopodium germplasm to untap nutritional and site-specific adaptation potential would be of prime importance for breeders/researchers. The present study used 10 accessions of two Chenopodium species, that is, C. quinoa and C. album. Quantitative and qualitative phenotypic traits, proximate composition, minerals, and amino acids profiles were studied to compare the differences in nutritional value and extent of genetic diversity between these two species. Our results showed significant variation existed in yield attributing agro-morphological traits. All the traits were considered for hierarchical clustering and principal components analysis. Large genetic variability was observed in traits of Chenopodium accessions. The protein, dietary fiber, oil, and sugar content ranged from 16.6% to 19.7%, 16.8% to 26%, 3.54% to 8.46%, and 3.74% to 5.64%, respectively. The results showed that C. album and C. quinoa seeds had good nutritional value and health-promoting benefits. The C. quinoa was slightly ahead of than C. album in terms of nutritional value, but C. album accession IC415477 was at par for higher test weight, seed yield (117.02 g/plant), and other nutritional parameters with C. quinoa accessions. IC415477 and other potential accessions observed in this study may be taken up by breeders/researchers in the near future to dissect nutritional value of Chenopodium and related species for dietary diversity, which is imperative for the nutritional security of the ever-growing world's population.

Keywords: dietary diversity; genetic diversity; human health; nutritional composition; quinoa.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests and personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Quantitative traits in Chenopodium species represented by box plot.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Frequency distribution of qualitative traits in Chenopodium species.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Variability in amino acids concentration of Chenopodium quinoa and C. album. Different superscript letters on top of the error bar represent differences in significance.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Biplot analysis of important traits in Chenopodium species. (a) Biplot analysis of agro‐morphological traits; (b) Biplot analysis of proximate composition; (c) Biplot analysis of amino acid contents; (d) Biplot analysis of mineral contents.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Dendrogram depicting close relatedness between different accessions of Chenopodium species.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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