Proximate Composition and Mineral Content of Selected Chickpea Cultivars

IntroductionC hickpea, also known as Garbanzo bean or Bengal gram (Lev-Yadun et al., 2000) cultivated in many parts of the world.Chickpea does not require more labour work and its production is more efficient than other crops (Shiferaw et al., 2007).Most of the people in the world used chickpea as a source of food, mostly for their protein content (FAO, 2008).Among the major types of chickpea, the two important ones are Kabuli chickpea that is found in Asia and USA.The seeds of this type are larger in size and having white color.The 2 nd one is known as desi chickpea; the seeds of this type are small in size and the color is light brown.Desi type is cultivated mainly in India and East Africa (Rincon et al., 1998).The area under pulses cultivation in Pakistan is 1-1.7 Abstract | Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) are an important source of nutrient and can be eaten either as salad or cooked as leafy green and their grain can be consumed as curries.Samples of tender leaves, green pods, green grains, Mature pods and Mature grains of seven different Chickpea cultivars KK-1, KK-2, KK-3, Chattan, Lawaghir, Sheenghar, Fakhar-e-Thal, were obtained from Karak Research Station Ahmad Wala and evaluated for proximate composition and mineral contents.The data related to proximate composition and mineral profile showed significant difference (P<0.05) by comparing cultivars and edible parts.Proximate composition (%) of the cultivars showed that Moisture (80.84) and Ash (3.50) were high in Lawaghar, Crude fiber (6.60) in KK-2, Crude protein in Chattan (7.87) while Crude fat (2.22) was high in KK-1.Among the edible parts, Moisture (85.54) and Ash (3.54) were high in Green grains while Crude fiber (6.38),Crude protein (8.29) and Crude fat (1.99) were maximum in Tender leaves.Mineral (mgKg -1 ) content of the cultivars showed that Na (38.3),Pb (0.30) and Cu (0.09) were high in Sheenghar, Cr (0.36), Ni (0.92) in KK-2, Fe (0.29) in KK-3, P (0.28) in Chattan while Mg (0.90) was high in Fakhar e Thal.In parts Na (40.2),P (0.24), Pb (0.32) and Mg (0.34) were high in Green grains, K (84.57),Cu (0.09) and Fe (0.22) in Tender leaves, Cr (0.36) in Green pods while Ni (0.69) and Zn (0.18) were maximum in mature pods.Chlorophyll was high (52.85) in Tender leaves.It was concluded from the data that cultivars varied in it nutritional composition and also the parts contained an appreciable amount of nutrients which along with grains may be utilized in daily diets or any other food formulation.