Indian Onion Research Articles

Instrumental texture and flavonoid profile of paste developed from sprouted onion varieties of Indian origin

ABSTRACTThe effect of sprouting on the instrumental texture, antioxidant activity, and flavonoid profile of the paste prepared from four Indian onion varieties (Punjab White, Punjab Naroya, PRO-6, and Commercial) was studied. The significant (P ˂ 0.05) effect of sprouting on microstructure, firmness, adhesiveness, gumminess, and chewiness in paste samples from all varieties was observed. There was significant decrease (P ˂ 0.05) in lightness with consequent significant (P ˂ 0.05) increase in redness, greenness, and yellowness in paste samples which was due to the increase in anthocyanin content with sprouting. The paste samples from sprouted onion varieties also showed an increase in phenol content, flavonoid content, antioxidant capacity, and DPPH radical scavenging activity. The HPLC analysis revealed an increase in total flavonoids in pastes from PRO-6 and Punjab Naroya varieties. Thus, present study implied that sprouting could be beneficial as it enhanced the functional potential of onion pastes.

International Trade Potential of Indian Onion: An Analysis of Competitive Advantage and Direction of Trade

Agriculture being the backbone of Indian economy supports the country to be in international trade domain with a great position. This is observed by looking at the share of food grains and some horticultural produce especially onion in international trade. This paper made an attempt to analyze the international trade potential of Indian onion with an emphasis on examination of the drivers of change in onion production through Hazell's decomposition analysis. It also focused on identifying the direction of onion exports by using stationary form of the first order Markov chain model and suggested a diversification of trade markets. In addition to finding out the direction of trade, the study also informs about whether India has a comparative advantage in onion exports or not with the price competitiveness by using Revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index and Nominal protection coefficient (NPC) respectively.

Production and export performance of Indian onion- Markov chain analysis

Production and export performance of Indian onion- Markov chain analysis

Instability in Export of Onion in India

Onion is an important vegetable and has been grown in almost all the parts of India for thousands of years. The onion is regarded as a highly export oriented crop and earns valuable foreign exchange for the country. The study was taken up to know the instability of the onion markets in India during 1995–2013, for this the secondary data was collected and to know about the stability in export, Instability index. This index was used to assess the instability associated with the export of onion to different countries. The instability index of export in terms of quantity during pre removal period was 23.6 per cent, while in the post removal period it has reduced to 16.89 per cent signaling stability in terms of export. This can be attributed to increased production (area led). In terms of value much difference was not observed between the two time periods. United Arab Emirates was the most loyal importer of Indian fresh onions with retention probabilities of 0.65. This was reinforced by the transfers from Indonesia to the extent of 0.11 probabilities, and 0.33 probabilities from other country share. But it had tendency to lose its share to Malaysia to the extent of 0.12 probabilities. Malaysia with a retention probability of 0.44 was the third loyal importer of Indian onions. It had absorbed 0.12 probability shares from UAE, 0.37 shares from Bangladesh and 0.11 share probabilities from Indonesia. But it had lost 0.2633 probability share of its previous year's share Bangladesh and 0.29 probability share to the others countries. Indonesia was the second loyal importer of Indian onion with a retention probability of 0.77. It had lost its share to Malaysia and UAE at 0.11 probability share.

Effect of sprouting on physicochemical, antioxidant and flavonoid profile of onion varieties

SummaryThis study investigated the impact of sprouting in four Indian onion varieties (Punjab White, Punjab Naroya, PRO‐6 and Commercial). Results showed significant (P < 0.05) increase in protein, crude fibre, ascorbic acid content, total phenol content, total flavonoid content, antioxidant activity, anthocyanin content and significant (P < 0.05) decrease in total carbohydrate, energy value and hardness due to sprouting in all the four varieties. HPLC analysis revealed irregular pattern of increase and decrease in flavonoid components. There was no particular trend observed within analysed flavonols due to sprouting in all the four varieties except with the maximum increase in quercetin (219.3–287.4 mg kg−1), kaempferol (13.8–17 mg kg−1), myricetin (34.6–40.9 mg kg−1), quercetin‐3ꞌ‐glucoside (2.9–4.1 mg kg−1) and quercetin‐4ꞌ‐glucoside (83–87.1 mg kg−1) in case of PRO‐6 variety only. The present research work implied sprouting to be beneficial in onion as nutritional and functional potential of all the four onion varieties was improved by sprouting.

PCR-based rapid identification of Indian onion populations possessing S-cytoplasm for isolation of CMS lines

As a novel method of identifying S and N cytoplasms in onion, a mitochondrial DNA based marker cytochrome b (cob) was used to cytoplasmically characterize Indian onion populations. The oligonucleotides amplified 414 bp DNA for S-cytotype and 180 bp for N-cytotype in open-pollinated populations, namely, Punjab Naroya, Punjab Selection, Punjab White, PRO-6, PBR-4 and P-266. Out of the 200 seedlings screened in each population, 19 in Punjab Naroya, 15 in Punjab Selection and 5 in Punjab White showed amplification of 414 bp revealing S-cytoplasmic proportion of 9.5, 7.5 and 2.5%, respectively. While PRO-6, PBR-4 and P-266 showed amplification of 180 bp only, indicating the absence of S-cytoplasm. The results suggest that Punjab Naroya, Punjab Selection and Punjab White can be exploited for development of male sterile (A) and maintainer (B) lines, while PRO-6, PBR-4 and P-266 can be utilized to isolate maintainer and restorer (R) lines. The study establishes a rapid method of cytoplasm identification in onion, which is pre-requisite to developing CMS lines. In contrast to 4–8 years taken by conventional approach used in India, this technique identifies cytoplasm within 15 days of sowing and proves its practical efficacy for future onion F1 breeding in the country.

Analysis of the Proximate Composition and Energy Values of Two Varieties of Onion (Allium Cepa L.) Bulbs of Different Origin: A Comparative Study

Due to its significant medicinal property, nutritional worth and energy value, onions (Allium cepa L.) impart numerous health benefits to users. The comparative study was conducted to investigate the proximate composition, mineral composition and energy value of red onions of Bangladeshi and Indian origin. Results of studied onion varieties showed that, both Bangladeshi and Indian onions have high amount of Moisture (82.99 % and 82.77 %), Carbohydrate (14.146 % and 14.772 %), Total Sugar (4.74 % and 2.32 %), Vitamin-C (6.5 mg and 5.7 mg), Ca (46.9 mg and 25.7 mg), P (50.6 mg and 30.3 mg) and K (140 mg and 129 mg) respectively. The level of Protein (2.62 % and 1.489 %), Fat (0.4 % and 0.721 %), Fe (0.6 mg and 0.24 mg), Cu (0.04 mg and 0.1 mg), Mn (0.2 mg and 0.14 mg) and Zn (0.2 mg and 0.4 mg) are comparatively lower in the varieties. Presence of Protein, Fiber, Sugar, Vitamin-C, Ca, P, Na, K, Fe are considerably higher in Bangladeshi onions than the onions of Indian origin. In contrast, Indian onion has higher amount of fat and Zn. The levels of Carbohydrate, Silica and Ash content are almost identical in both varieties. The result obtained confirmed the usefulness and utility of onion bulbs of both varieties. The result also suggests that Bangladeshi onion having adequate quantity of vitamins and minerals with potentials to meet the nutritional requirements of human health is better than the onion of Indian origin.

Microsatellite marker based analysis of genetic diversity in short day tropical Indian onion and cross amplification in related Allium spp.

This paper deals with the diversity assessment of tropical Indian onion and cross amplification of genomic and EST-SSR markers in distantly related native wild species. Out of 60 SSRs, 10% genomic SSRs were able to amplify as compared to EST-SSR where 53.3% primers were able to reveal amplicons. Clustering revealed five groups and indigenous short day onion formed separate cluster from the exotic short day and long day onions. A. roylei accessions exhibited a dissimilarity index of 35.5% between themselves whereas ‘Pran’ and A. × proliferum grouped together at a genetic distance of 0.4. A. fistulosum accessions formed a tight cluster and distantly related wild species A. carolinianum, A. chinense and A. hookeri formed neutral nodes. Present results are important to aid in analyzing the diversity present in short day onion and its utilization in breeding programs. Further, this is the first time that three accessions of A. roylei Stearn were used and rare alleles amplified in wild species will aid in detecting population structure and molecular marker aided selection for interspecific hybrid development.

Assessment of bulb pungency level in different Indian cultivars of onion ( Allium cepa L.)

Onion ( Allium cepa L.) is an important vegetable crop consumed primarily for its ability to enhance the flavor of other foods. The quality of onion depends on its pungency. While highly pungent onions are popular in India, less pungent ones are preferred in other countries. However, the variability in pungency in bulbs of different cultivars however has not been investigated. The present investigation was therefore undertaken to determine the pungency in three popular Indian onion cultivars viz. N-2-4-1, B-780 and Phule Safed. Randomly selected bulb samples of the cultivars were analyzed for the content of pyruvic acid, total soluble solids (TSS) and reducing, non-reducing and total sugars. The red variety N-2-4-1 showed higher level of pungency, while other two varieties were comparatively less pungent.

Performance of Onion Exports from India

Onion is one of the important vegetable crops grown in India. In terms of area, India ranks first in the world with over 479 thousand hectares spread over entire country accounting for around 18 per cent of the world area planted to onion. Globally, the country occupies the second position after China in onion production with a share of 11 per cent. In the post-liberalization era, a number of export promotion measures have been taken to boost agri-exports. Onion being one of the major export items, it is very pertinent to assess the performance of onion export in post liberalized regime in order to take corrective measures and devise future strategies to achieve greater levels of export. The paper attempts to study the changes in composition and direction of onion exports and estimation of export demand for onion. Onion was exported from the country mainly in four forms [at 8 digit HS (ITC) classification] i.e., onions fresh or chilled, onions preserved/prepared by vinegar acetic acid, onions dehydrated/dried and onions provisionally prepared. Substantial change in composition of onion and its products has taken place over the years, with the share of onions fresh in total onion exports falling to 83 per cent in TE 2002 from a high of 99 per cent in 1980. In the decade of 1990s, onion fresh recorded a marginal growth in volume terms whereas onions dehydrated/dried and onions provisionally prepared recorded a very high growth of 23 and 7 per cent respectively. Therefore, the focus in future should be to produce and export processed products of onion, i.e. onions dehydrated/dried and onions provisionally prepared by vinegar acetic acid for accelerated foreign exchange earnings. The insignificant growth of unit value realization for onions fresh or chilled, onions preserved and onions dehydrated exports is a cause of concern. In Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Mauritius Indian onion fresh or chilled was getting higher unit value price and, therefore, the focus could be to expand the market base in these countries. The Markov chain analysis was done to estimate the market share for the period 2009. It was estimated that Bangladesh would account for highest share of onion fresh exports followed by Malaysia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, etc. With the enforcement of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka, the declining trend in exports to Sri Lanka is expected to be reversed. There is a need to expand the export market of onions and also to look for avenues where higher price realization is possible. There is also a need to have long term and stable policy towards export of onion. The supply of onion for exports could be increased through increased production and by way of reduction in post harvest losses. An adequate policy support is needed to take the available technology to the farmers.