Evaluation of Indian potato germplasm for iron and zinc content

Abstract

Micronutrient deficiency affects more than half of the world's population especially in developing countries. Amongst micronutrients iron and zinc are the two major elements for human nutrition and their deficiency is commonly observed. Biofortification of food crops is an emerging area of research to overcome such mineral deficiencies. Potato has a priority claim for biofortification as it yields more nutritious food per unit area and time and may contribute significantly in meeting nutritional requirements of the population. Keeping this in view a breeding programme is initiated for which germplasm characterization was done. Forty-six potato germplasm with varying degree of flesh colour from white to yellow to violet were evaluated for iron and zinc content in raw and peeled tubers. The iron content ranged between14.90–67.13 mg/kg (ppm) dry weight and zinc between 2.78–35.40 mg/kg (ppm) dry weight basis in tuber flesh. Significant and positive correlation between these two nutrients suggests that breeding varieties with high content of both these nutrients is feasible. Carotenoids content enhances the bioavailability of the micro nutrients but lack of correlation between tuber flesh colour index and nutrient concentration in the present study indicated that these traits are independent. The genotypes CP 1239, CP1435, CP1812, CP1983, CP1978, CP2067, CP2414, CP3443, CP3772 and CP4242 are promising as parental material for developing iron and zinc rich potato varieties