Title : Study on genetic diversity and physico-chemical characteristics of theichhungsen (Haematocarpus validus (miers.) bakh. f. ex. forman), a potential source of natural food colour from Mizoram
Abstract:
An investigation was carried out between March to June, 2019, to identify superior genotypes of the fruits of Theichhungsen (Haematocarpus validus (Miers.) Bakh. F. ex. Forman), which is a potential source of natural food colour, from the state of Mizoram, North East India. The fruits were collected from different locations and various morphological features such as fruit weight and size, peel weight and thickness, pulp weight, seed weight, length and breadth, as well as physico-chemical characteristics such as TSS, titratable acidity, total sugar, reducing sugar, anthocyanin content, vitamin ‘C’, protein, carbohydrate, starch and phenolic contents were analysed. The fruit samples collected from different locations have varying weight on their fruit, seeds and pulp ranging between 14.81gm to 37.01 gm (fruits), 3.65 gm to 13.61gm (seed), and 1.84gm to 8.95 gm (pulp). The study also reveal that fruits collected from Darlawn village has maximum average fruit weight(33.04 gm), maximum peel and pulp weight, maximum seed length and weight, highest reducing sugar (9.28%), lowest titratable acidity (2.22%) and highest starch content (1.93 mg/100gm). On the other hand, fruits collected from Tachhip village showed minimum average size in fruit length and breadth, fruit weight (18.61 gm), pulp weight (1.09 gm), seed weight (14.36gm) and seed length and breadth. Also fruits from Tachhip village have lowest TSS content (10.00 Brix ), lowest reducing sugar, highest titratable acidity (6.48%), highest vitamin ‘C’ content (17.94 mg/100gm), highest protein content (1.6 mg/100gm) and lowest phenol content (0.52 %). Fruits from Seling village have maximum peel thickness (4.81mm), maximum seed breadth, highest total sugar content, highest anthocyanin content (273 mg/100gm) and highest carbohydrate content (9.66 mg/100gm). Thus, the fruits from Darlawn are found to be best in terms of size, the fruits from Tachhip eventhough small in size, have high score in physico-chemical contents, whereas the fruits from Seling maybe most suitable for anthocyanin pigment extraction. Keywords: Theichhungsen, blood fruit, natural food colour, anthocyanin.
