Nutritional Quality of Rice Endosperm

Abstract

Rice is the staple food of more than half of the world's population and provides 20% of the per capita energy and 13% of the per capita protein for humans worldwide (FAO 1980; Herdt and Palacpac 1983). In Asia, where 91% of the world's rice is produced (FAO 1982), rice provides 35% of the energy and 28% of the protein. In addition, rice provides minerals, vitamins, and dietary fiber to the diet of rice-eating people. Thus, rice plays a very important role in providing nutrients to a large segment of the world's population. Improving its nutritional properties as well as its functional attributes through conventional means of processing and the promising techniques of genetic engineering is a continuing challenge to rice scientists.