Agronomic Characters and Chemical composition of Sri Lankan Novel Red Pericarp Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Variety

Sri Lanka is a rich treasurable land of traditional rice cultivation and rice is the primary staple food in Sri Lanka. There are many unpopular rice varieties which have been derived from traditional rice varieties and their nutritional values are under investigation. One such novelSri Lankan red pericarp rice variety known as Gurupiya is focused on this study. Agronomic characters of novel rice variety was evaluated according to IRRI 1998. Standard methods of AOAC nutritional guidelines were used to obtain the proximate composition of Gurupiya rice variety (GPRV). AOCS methods were used to analyze oil profile. Fatty acid profile was determined by using GCMS. The results showed that crude protein, crude fiber, crude fat and carbohydrate contents were12.0±0.1 %, 1.5±0.1 %, 2.6±0.4 %, 75.9±0.1 % respectively. Calorie content was 375.0 kcal/100g. According to the results, GPRV have high Zn content (4.82 mg/100 g). Fatty acid composition of the GPRV revealed that more than half of the total fatty acids were made up of unsaturated fatty acids (USFA) which are considered as important for good health. Results showed that iodine value (IV), acid value (AV), saponification value (SV) and peroxide value (PV) of GPRV were 72.1 ± 3.5 g I2/100 g, 21.4 ± 2.7 mg KOH/g, 202.13 ± 2.5 mg KOH/g and 18.6± 1.1 meq O2/kg, respectively. The results reveal that novel GPRV shows high nutritional values than that of reported for the improved rice varieties. Therefore, consumption of GPRV will aid in the improvement of health condition