Identification of wheat genotypes with higher levels of antioxidant properties across environments in India

Abstract

Wheat is an important source of energy and nutrition including antioxidants having health benefits to humans. In this investigation, 19 and 12 prominent wheat genotypes grown (during cropping season 2019-20) at three locations in two production environments representing North-Western Plains Zone (NWPZ) and Central Zone (CZ), respectively, were used for evaluating their antioxidant potential. There was a significant positive correlation between total soluble phenol and ABTS activity (p<0.01) while non-significant with DPPH scavenging activity in NWPZ genotype. However, there was a significant positive correlation of total soluble phenol with DPPH (p<0.01) and ABTS (p<0.05) radical scavenging activities in CZ genotypes. The genotypes HI 1628 and PBW 771 of NWPZ and HI 1634, CG 1029 and GW 322 of CZ exhibited higher mean phenolic content and antioxidant potential and were found comparatively stable across their environments with respect to the parameters tested. Overall, the Karnal location (NWPZ) was shown to have higher phenolic content and ABTS activity compared to genotypes grown at different locations of both the zones. The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction-based ANOVA indicated highly significant effect of environment, genotype and genotype(x) environment interactions on soluble phenolics and antioxidants among genotypes in both the zones. The identified genotypes can be used for cultivation and improving nutritional value.