Physical and Functional Behaviour of Horse Gram Genotypes ( Macrotyloma uniflorum L. Verdc.) Varieties

Horse gram is one such legume, which is easy to grow, resistant to pests and diseases, appeal to the eye and to the palate and highly nutritious. Horse gram is one of the important grain legume crops of India. It is essentially a crop for the dry tropics and is grown in area of moderate rainfall. It is drought resistant and adoptable to poor soil conditions unlike other pulses. It can also be grown successfully under irrigation. In India, it is grown on light sandy soils, red loams, black cotton soils and gravels. However, water logging and excess alkaline soils have adverse effect on the crop. Grain legumes differ in their physico-chemical characteristics and these variations influence the quality of grains. In recent years, physical and functional behavioral parameters have been proved to be of considerable value in studying the variability in morphological and biochemical characters in the legumes around the world and their suitability in food product development. Hence, it is important to know the variation in the quality of grains. Such information would be useful in selecting the varieties for production/manufacture of various food preparations.