Mineral and Nutritional Analysis of Bread Wheat Germ plasm in Kenya

Abstract

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is ranked second after maize in cereal crops research priorities in Kenya. The mineral concentration and nutritional profiling of 21 Kenyan wheat varieties and lines grown in Njoro, Kenya were screened to determine the contribution of genotype to the variation observed on minerals and nutritional traits using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Near Infra Red Spectrophotometer and AACC methods. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that genotypes (G) grown in Njoro site were different (P::;O.Ol) in mean values for calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, resistant starch and protein in the grains. Correlation coefficients between wheat quality traits were not different (P ~O.O I) but only for calcium with magnesium, calcium with zinc, magnesium with zinc and magnesIUm with protein. From the mean quality data for all the test parameters, a dendogram was derived depicting the levels of genetic similarity between wheat varieties based on quality traits. For all the quality traits, at an 80 % similarity coefficient, four cluster groups were delineated which comprised of the four wheat groupings of wheat in Kenya based on nutritional status.