Carbohydrate Profile of Corn Hybrids at different Growth Stages

摘要

Corn (Zea mays L.) an agronomically versatile crop. In India corn ranks third in production after rice and wheat, and is predominantly grown in kharif (July to November). Corn has many industrial and food applications apart from its use as a feed ingredient. Like other cereal grains, corn contains large proportion of carbohydrates (mainly starch) and provides energy in corn dependent population. Its nutritional value is comparable to rice and wheat (Anony., 1998). Corn crop can be used at different stages of growth i.e. babycorn (40-55 DAS), sweetcorn (80-85 DAS), grain maize (120-140 DAS). Of late babycorn is fetching higher returns to the farmers. Baby corn is at par or even superior to some of the seasonal vegetables. Besides protein, vitamins and iron it is also one of the richest sources of phosphorus and easy to digest. The studies related to carbohydrate profile at baby corn and maturity stage is scanty. Hence the purpose of present investigation was to find out the carbohydrate profile at baby corn and maturity stage. Three baby corn varieties, Prakash (early maturity), DHM-107 (medium maturity) and Nithyashree (late maturity) were procured from AICRP (Maize), ARS, Nagenahalli, Mysore during kharif 2007. Total sugars were estimated by pheonol sulphuric acid method Dubois (1956), total starch by Nelson et al. (2000). The amylose was analysed colorimetrically based on the starch iodine blue complex. Insoluble and solube dietary fibres were estimated using the methods of Asp (1983). All theestimations were carried in triplicates at two stages of harvest 40-45 DAS (early), 50-55 DAS (medium) and 60-65 DAS (late) for baby com ; 100-105 DAS (early), 110-115 DAS (medium) and 120-125 DAS (late) for grain maize.