STUDIES ON EVALUATION OF GRAIN QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF SOME BASMATI AND NON-BASMATI RICE CULTIVARS

Abstract

Physical, chemical and cooking properties of some newly developed basmati and non-basmati varieties of rice were studied, which showed significant variations within different quality parameters. The longer kernel length, intermediate amylose content, higher elongation after cooking, more water uptake ratio and strong aroma were found to be the distinctive features of evolved basmati rice cultivars like the traditional ones. There was significant correlation found between some of the important quality parameters of rice, such as paddy length breadth ratio showed a positive correlation with kernel length breadth ratio (r = 0.908), density (r = 0.801), cooked kernel length (r = 0.836) and a negative correlation with bulk density (r = −0.84). Amylose content showed a negative correlation with gel consistency (r = −0.974), solid loss in gruel (r = −0.856) while it is positively correlated with cooked kernel length (r = 0.937), elongation ratio (r = 0.829) and water uptake (r = 0.786) at 5% level of significance. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Oryza sativa has a broad range of genetic diversity within specific quality characters like physicochemical, cooking, eating and aroma. Some of these individual quality attributes got consumer's preference and became popular in different regions of the country. The quality characterization of newly developed rice cultivars from cereal chemistry approach and to find correlation between important properties is mandatory to study their quality attributes and to compare their different properties with already studied cultivars for further improvement in quality characteristics of under development varieties of rice. Thus, the present investigation reveals the morphological, physicochemical and cooking properties of some newly developed rice cultivars. These studies are of paramount importance in terms of evaluation of grain quality features of very long, long and medium grain size varieties of rice instead of focusing on only one type of variety, and thus suits different markets and consumer preferences.