Effect of pigmentation on physical, phytochemical and antioxidant properties of traditional rice landraces from Odisha region (India)

Abstract

A study was conducted in the Odisha region of India to assess genetic parameters, heritability, and trait associations in twenty traditional pigmented and non-pigmented rice landraces. The evaluation focused on twenty-five physical, phytochemical, and antioxidant properties. The results showed potential for enhancing desired traits in pigmented rice due to a wide range of genotypic variation, high heritability, and substantial genetic advances. These improvements were particularly observed in characteristics such as porosity, total soluble sugar, phytochemicals, and antioxidant properties in pigmented rice. Additionally, properties like the length-breadth ratio of grains, thickness, diameter, thousand grain weight, and bulk density of grains can be used for trait improvement in non-pigmented rice. Physical attributes like thickness, grain weight, and porosity, as well as phytochemical traits like total soluble sugar and protein content, were notably higher in pigmented rice. Correlations between traits indicated that Pigmented rice was associated with phytochemical and antioxidant properties, while Non-pigmented rice was linked to amylose content, density, and the length-breadth ratio of grains. Two promising pigmented genotypes, Bodikaberi and Mahipaljeera, were identified and could be valuable for future rice breeding programs. Moreover, these genotypes have potential applications in the food industry for creating value-added products to enhance nutritional quality and could also be relevant to the cosmetic industry due to their superior antioxidant properties.