Endangered indigenous rice varieties as a source of B vitamins for the undernourished population

Abstract

AbstractBackground and ObjectivesRice is a staple food for half of the world's population and plays an important role to deliver several micronutrients including B vitamins to humans. The present investigation was carried out to detect some B vitamins and estimate their concentrations in 309 traditional indica rice landraces, compared with three modern rice varieties predominantly available in the Indian market.FindingsLiquid chromatographic examination of the rice samples demonstrated that a large number of traditional rice landraces contained considerable amounts of different B vitamins. In the landraces examined, vitamin B1 (thiamine) was recorded to be present in the range of 0.01–10.55 mg/100 g, vitamin B2 (riboflavin) 0.01–2.63 mg/100 g, vitamin B3 (niacin) 0.20–4.52 mg/100 g, vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) 0.01–18.55 mg/100 g, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) 0.01–0.86 mg/100 g, and vitamin B7 (biotin) 0.01–5.90 mg/100 g in different rice landraces.ConclusionCompared with traditional rice, modern rice cultivars seem to have substantially lower B vitamin levels. It appears that these vitamin‐rich traditional rice landraces if incorporated into daily diet, may serve to attain nutritional security of the poor.Significance and NoveltyOur results show that many traditional rice landraces are nutritionally superior to any modern rice cultivar, even though traditional rice landraces are normally not in priority for agronomic research and development. This study shows how native rice landraces may be leveraged to constitute novel nutritious diet that could enhance human health.