Diversity of nutritional quality in IFVCNS grain sorghum collection

Abstract

The general concern for the development of functional foods has created the need to study and use new food ingredients that would be involved in improving health condition. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) gains more interest since it has a gluten-free grain and represents a rich source of nutrients and biologically active compounds. The aim of this work was to test the nutritional quality of 178 genotypes from the sorghum grain collection of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops (Novi Sad, Serbia) produced in the agro-ecological conditions of Serbia. The main nutritional quality parameters that characterize the biological value of sorghum grain (according to CXS172-1989 are contents of ash-max. 1.5%, protein-min. 7.0%, fat-max. 4.0%, and total tannin-max. 0.5%) were analyzed in order to select genotypes suitable for human consumption. The grain of the tested sorghum genotypes had a total oil content (determined by the Soxhlet method) in the range of 1.55 to 6.62% of dry matter, while the total protein content (determined by the Kjeldahl method) ranged from 8.67 to 19.76% of dry matter, on average.