Research Article Variability among Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes for Physicochemical, Cooking and Antioxidative properties for exploitation in quality breeding

In the present investigation, 67 advance genotypes of rice were analyzed for their physicochemical, cooking, pasting and antioxidant properties. Wide variations were observed in most of the traits under study such as amylose (9.96–22.43%), amylopectin (77.57–90.04%), starch (20.65–52.11%), volume expansion ratio (1.71– 4.67 ml), length of blue gel (59.00–116.00 mm) and cooking time (19–26 minutes). Peak viscosity and final viscosity were found to be highest in genotype VL-7852 (292.5 RVA) and VL-30425 (496.08 RVA), respectively. Antioxidative activities were found correlated with total polyphenols. DPPH radical inhibition was recorded in the range of 9.23-17.34 μM Trolox equivalents/g DW, while ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) was in the range of 6.76-30.19 μM Trolox equivalents/g DW. Principal component analysis (PCA) was done to find out relationships among groups of variables in a data set and between genotypes. Two major clusters were formed using agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) that explained good variation in the traits. The existence of wide variability for various parameters in the present study suggests that the selected genotypes might be useful for rice breeders working on the development of new varieties with value-added traits.