Nutritional diversity of Indian lablab bean (Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet): An approach towards biofortification

Abstract

Worldwide prevalent malnourishment associated with human health could be improved by biofortification of climate-resilient vegetable crops through breeding strategies. Nutritional diversity of lablab bean accessions evaluated for nutritional composition and association among the traits. A core set of 54 cultivated accessions of lablab bean collected from different locations of Eastern ghats and scored for 10 nutritional traits which ranged as protein (0.81–5.92 g/100 g), vitamin C (2.49–7.87 mg/100 g), phenol (0.84–3.17 mg/g), calcium (3.45–39.51 ppm), iron (8.80–34.32 ppm), copper (1.10–11.88 ppm), manganese (4.14–26.27 ppm), zinc (25.3–57.5 ppm), phosphorous (16.24–50.21%) & potassium (8.65–75.19%) and exhibited substantial variability among genotypes and significant differences (p < 0.001) except vitamin C content. The genotypes IIHR-B-DB-52 and IIHR-B-DB-56 recorded the highest magnitude for micronutrients (iron; 34.32 ppm & zinc; 57.5 ppm) and protein; 5.92 g/100 g, respectively. The correlation studies among traits indicated the strong and significant association of zinc with copper (0.45) and iron (0.29) while potassium showed a moderate association with manganese (0.41), zinc (0.34), and calcium (0.33); therefore these traits may be targeted together for lablab bean improvement programs. The Principal Component analysis showed that the first 5 PCs explained 71.94% of total variability from evaluated genotypes and all nutrient traits contributed to overall genetic variations. These genotypes were segregated into five clusters which were observed neutral to nutrient traits dispersal and geographical distribution.