Nutritional variability and milling losses of rice landraces from Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India.

Rice landraces of North-East India have wide bio-diversity but remained nutritionally uncharacterized. Nutritional profiling of 33 indigenous rice landraces from the state of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India, and effect milling was evaluated. Total dietary fiber (5.22 g/100 g) was significantly higher than high yielding or hybrid cultivars. Principal nutrient variability of brown rice were: ash (13% c. v.) > insoluble dietary fibre, IDF (12% c. v.) > protein (11.% c.v.) fat (11% c. v.). Compositional diversity exists among rice landraces. Average iron was lesser but zinc content was higher than popular high yielding cultivars. Nutrient changes due to milling were most profound for thiamin (-69%), IDF (-66%) followed by phytate (-66%). Nutritionally Arunachal rice landraces are comparable to high yielding cultivars with added advantage of significantly higher total dietary fiber and lower phytate content. Thus, Arunachal rice landraces represents an agronomically and nutritionally important pool for rice improvement/breeding.