Variation of Nutritional and Anti-Nutritional Contents in Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) Genotypes

Abstract

Variation in nutritional and anti-nutritional contents among six finger millet genotypes was determined. Improved finger millet genotypes Gulu-E and FMV-1 from Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, KNE-479 and KNE 1034 from International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and local landraces Ateso and Nyaikuro, were compared. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference in calcium (Ca), iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) contents among the genotypes. Genotypes Ateso and Gulu-E had the highest crude fat contents while KNE-479 had the lowest. Genotypes KNE-479 and Nyaikuro had the highest crude protein content. Lowest crude protein contents were observed in genotypes Gulu-E and Ateso. Genotype Ateso followed by FMV-1 and Nyaikuro had high isoleusine, leusine, methionine, threonine and cysteine amino acid contents. High levels of phenylalanine were observed in genotypes Nyaikuro and Ateso. Ateso had the highest P-hydroxybenzoic, sinapic and syringic acids, while Nyaikuro had high ferulic and vanilic acids. Except for genotype KNE-479 with highest sinapic acid contents, the ICRISAT developed genotypes had the lowest anti-nutritional contents. Anti-nutrients tannins, vanilic acid and ferulic acid were negatively correlated to Fe and Zn contents. Therefore when selecting finger millet for Fe and Zn the levels of anti-nutritional contents need to be considered.