The Nutritional Composition of Local Rice Varieties in Guyana

Abstract

DOI: 10.15580/GJAS.2019.2.022819041 Rice is one of the most popular cereals worldwide, one of Guyana’s major staple foods produced and consumed. With most of the population dependent on rice as a significant part of their diet, it becomes critical to analyze and monitor its composition. This project was aimed at comparatively analyzing four different local rice varieties cultivated in Guyana and one candidate line for proximate chemical components, vitamins and mineral elements. 2kg of paddy of each variety/line was harvested from pre-basic plots and were cleaned and shelled. Analyses were done by Kaizen Environmental Services Inc. All methods were carried out based on the AOAC (Association of Official Analytical Chemists) method. In this study, the genetic diversity of the rice varieties/lines was reflected by the range of nutritional characteristics. There was no variety that was superior to another in terms of its overall nutritional content; however, there were some that recorded higher levels of one or more nutrients. The average protein was relatively high in both cargo and polished rice (8.50% and 7.78% respectively). Carbohydrates, present in the largest amount in all 5 varieties, ranged from 70.94% to 73.57% for cargo/brown rice and 73.85% to 77.11% for polished rice. It was also observed that the degree of milling also influenced the nutritional composition of the grain. The unpolished /brown/cargo rice contained higher amounts of all nutrients except carbohydrates when compared to the polished/white rice. The effect of poor nutritional value of rice can result in short life expectation, the prevalence of diseases, poor physical development and reduced working capacity; and so it is important that rice produced meets the requirements for its population. Submitted: 28/02/2019 Accepted: 05/03/2019 Published: 09/04/2019