Proximate Composition and Minerals Profile of Selected Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Varieties of Pakistan

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food cereal that encompasses half of the world's food requirements. Pakistani rice is popular world over due to unique taste and aroma. The present work reports the proximate composition and minerals profile of the selected rice (Oryza sativa) varieties: super basmati, basmati 515, basmati 198, basmati 385, basmati 2000, basmati 370, basmati Pak, KSK 133, KS 282 and Irri 6 of Pakistan. Among the varieties tested, the contents (g/100 g) of basic fractions of paddy rice namely rice husk, rice bran and white rice grain varied from 17.02 (basmati 515) to 25.72 (KSK-133), 13.45 (Irri-6) to 19.25 (basmati 370) and 63.88 (basmati 198) to 74.93 (basmati 515), respectively. Moisture and ash contents among the varieties varied from 6.84 to 9.08 % and 1.92 to 1.98 %, respectively. The amount of crude protein, lipids and carbohydrates were found to be within the range of 7.50 to 9.16 g/100 g, 1.92 to 2.72 g/100 g and 0.170 to 0.186 g/100 g, respectively. The content of polysaccharides (starch), the main rice component, was determined to be 76.98 to 79.86 %. Minerals profile as studied by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), showed that the tested varieties of rice mainly contained calcium 825 to 1330 mg/kg, magnesium 960 to 1225 mg/kg, zinc 191 to 319 mg/kg, ferric 186 to 317 mg/kg, copper 13.24 to 16.65 mg/kg, aluminum 59 to 105 mg/kg, manganese 19.25 to 26.10 mg/kg and chromium 10.90 to 24.45 mg/kg. The amounts of sodium and potassium, determined flame photometerically, were noted to be 89 to 109 mg/kg and 2378 to 2794 mg/kg, respectively. The results of the present analysis revealed the tested varieties of Pakistani rice to be a potential source of valuable minerals together with balanced level of other nutrients.