Agromorphological, Nutritional and Antioxidant Properties in Horsegram [Macrotyloma Uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc.] Germplasm Collection from Diverse Altitudinal Range of North Western Himalayan Hills of India

Agromorphological, Nutritional and Antioxidant Properties in Horsegram [Macrotyloma Uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc.] Germplasm Collection from Diverse Altitudinal Range of North Western Himalayan Hills of India

Horsegram is an underutilised food legume, popularly known for its resilience to adverse climatic and soil conditions as well as for possessing excellent remedial properties. In spite of nutritionally rich food/fodder, excellent nutraceutical values and ability to perform better under marginal conditions unsuitable for other crops, this food legume is neglected and benefited little in terms of genetic improvement. It is primarily grown as an indemnity in areas often facing harsh weather condition across the country. Horsegram is indigenous to India and a huge variability exists for key agro morphological and nutritional traits which is not characterised and utilised properly so far. Presently, the genetic improvement of this underutilised food legume heavily depends upon indigenous genetic resources. In the absence of their proper evaluation they are not being effectively utilized. Therefore, in the present study, an effort has been made to explore the genetic diversity in a set of horsegram accessions collected from diverse altitudes of NW Himalayan hills with respect to agro-morphological, nutritional and antioxidant traits. The study revealed that the accessions of low and high hills were more diverse among themselves as compare to the accessions of mid hills possibly due to diverse agro-ecological conditions. Accessions from mid hills (1101-1500 m asl) was found to have high mean values for key agro-morphological traits viz., number of pods per plant (45), biological yield per plant (16.10 g), 100 seed weight (3.31 g), grain yield per plant (7.26 g) with less maturity duration (100 days) whereas, for nutraceutical properties like free radical inhibition against DPPH (21.28 μ mol TE/g DW) and desirable nutritional traits of pulses viz., high protein content (20.84%) with low phytic acid (9.13 mg/g) were found in the accessions of high (>1500 m asl) and low (<1100 m asl) hills, respectively, indicating the possibility of altitudinal adaptation of accessions and influence of age old criterion of selection practiced by the peasants at varied altitudes of NW Himalayan hills...