Nutritive Appraisal of Various Wheat Varieties/Lines for Developing Biofortified Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Essential micronutrients such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) deficiency affect more than two billion people globally especially in pregnant women and children under the age of five. Wheat, like many other staple cereals, contains low levels of essential micronutrients such as Fe and Zn. It contributes 13.1% to agricultural value addition and 2.8% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Pakistan. National Wheat Breeding program at Faisalabad, Pakistan analysed 240 coded samples of wheat varieties/lines both from irrigated and rainfed conditions. The analysis revealed that 1000 grain weight ranged from 23.9-50.2 g in irrigated and 31-42.0 g in rainfed conditions while test weight range was found to be 59.9-75.8 (irrigated) and 64.5-79.9 kghl-1 (rainfed). Protein and gluten content ranged between 12.0-16.1 & 13-16.2 and 21-34 & 21-38% in irrigated and rainfed trial, respectively. Starch content was recorded 51.8-57.1 and 51.9-56.1% under irrigated and rainfed condition, respectively. The values of Falling No. (FN) were equally recorded in both sets. Gluten & protein were directly correlated to each other, showing a positive correlation with Fe & Zn whereas a negative correlation was recorded with starch in both sets. However, a direct correlation of FN with starch content was observed only in the rainfed set. In irrigated condition, cluster 3 (5 genotypes) represented relatively high value of Fe and Zn content while in rainfed condition, cluster 2 (31 genotypes) and cluster 3 (15 genotypes) represented relatively high Zn concentration. The genotypes in these clusters might be helpful for developing biofortified wheat varieties to overcome Fe and Zn deficiency among the malnourished population.