A Nutritional analysis of selected heterotic hybrids of Zea mays L.

Abstract

The current experiment was designed to examine and evaluate the nutritional factors  of 16 selected high yielding Maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids and their parental lines. A secondary objective of this study was to compare the nutritional factors of the hybrids with that of their parents.71 genotypes (35 parents, F1& F2 of 16 selected hybrids, 2 checks) were evaluated in two replications for their nutritional factor. The nutritional factors of hybrids was determined by estimating the content of Protein, Carbohydrates, Amino acids and Ascorbic acid. Lowry’s method,  Anthrone’s method, Roe and Keuther method, Yemm et al., method was used to estimate the protein content, carbohydrate content, Ascorbic acid content and Amino acid content respectively. Among the select hybrids, four hybrids (SH1 (L29 x T3), SH8 (L24 x T3), SH13 (L11 x T5), SH15 (L24 x T5)) showed higher quantity of protein, carbohydrate and amino acids. Therefore, these four hybrids can be recommended to the farming community for production. This will help farmers to get good yielding maize with high nutritional factors. The rest of the hybrids can be recommended in their particular segment for nutritional benefits. We concluded  that, high-nutrient and high-yielding heterotic maize hybrids were produced for cultivation and suggested to the farmers.