Post Harvest Assessment and Nutritional Evaluation of Different Cultivars of Taro (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) Grown in the Alluvial Soils of West Bengal, India

Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate the nutritional content of various cultivars of taro acquired from All India Co-ordinated Research Project (AICRP) on tuber crops.

Study design:Completely randomized design (CRD) at 5% level of significance.

Place and duration of study: Department of Post Harvest Technology, faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra KrishiViswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India, between December 2019 and February 2020.

Methodology: 8 cultivars of taro were evaluated for their nutritional contents in this study and their physical attributes such as cormel girth, length, specific gravity, number of cormels per plant and weight of cormel as well as yield per hectare was calculated. Chemical attributes such as titratable acidity, starch, ascorbic acid, total phenol and total sugar as well as reducing sugar content in each cultivar was also studied.

Results: Analysis of variance showed significant variation among all the tested cultivars. Moisture content, total sugar and starch was recorded to be highest in the cultivar TTR-17-6 (72.233 %, 5.007 % and 31.805 % respectively). Total phenol (188 mg GAE 100 gm-1) and reducing sugar (2.817%) was found to be highest in TTR-17-5. Total soluble solids was highest in TTR-17-7 (3.867 0Brix). Dry matter content was highest in TTR-17-4 (37.333 %) and ascorbic acid was highest in TTR-17-2 (70.093 mg 100 gm-1).

Conclusion: The eight cultivars of taro studied were found to be rich in sugars, ascorbic acid, total phenols and starch. They were observed to vary in cormel girth, length, weight, specific gravity, yield, moisture, dry matter content, TSS and titratable acidity. The cultivar TTR-17-6 was found to be very high in starch, total sugar and moisture content. Therefore, this cultivar may be of considerable importance in ameliorating malnutrition in poorly resourced areas of the developing countries. Cultivar TTR-17-2 was found to be high in ascorbic acid and hence can be further used by the plant breeders to develop more cultivars of taro that are rich in such phytochemicals.