Diversity of the Biological and Proteinogenic Characteristics of Quinoa Genotypes as a Multi-Purpose Crop

• Published in: Agronomy (Basel) 2023-01, Vol.13 (2), p.279
• Main Authors: Voronov, Sergey, Pleskachiov, Yurii, Shitikova, Aleksandra, Zargar, Meisam, Abdelkader, Mostafa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino acids; Biodiversity; Biomass; Cereals; Chenopodium quinoa; Cultivars; Dietary minerals; Dry matter; Farms; Flowers & plants; forage; Forage crops; Genetic aspects; Genotypes; Geographical distribution; Grain; grain yield; Isoleucine; leafy vegetable; Leucine; Methionine; Nutritive value; protein; Proteins; Quinoa; quinoa genotypes; Research facilities; Seeds; Stems; Vegetables
• ISSN: 2073-4395; 2073-4395
• DOI: 10.3390/agronomy13020279

Quinoa is a multi-purpose vegetable, grain, and forage crop, due in part to the high nutritional value of its aerial parts. This work evaluates quinoa genotype characteristics as a starting point for a better understanding of multi-purpose cultivation. Ten cultivars of quinoa were studied on soddy-podzolic soils: Brightest Brilliant, Red Faro, and Cherry Vanilla from the US (USA 1–3); Titicaca (KY1) from Denmark; Regalo (KY2), a cultivar selected by the Baer Seed Research Center for southern Chile; as well as Q1–Q5, UAE cultivars of various ecological and geographical origins. Quinoa plants were divided into three parts (lower, middle, and upper). The Q3 and Q4 cultivars produced the maximum fresh weight (38.7 g and 35.4 g, respectively) and dry matter (5.6 g and 5.3 g, respectively). The leaf mass and stems comprised 25% and 75% of the lower parts, versus 50–60% and 40–50% of the middle parts, respectively. Stems made up about 15% of the upper parts. The KY1 and Q5 cultivars produced the highest results (4.08 and 4.23 g, respectively). Protein concentrations of the quinoa grains were relatively high, with up to 14.0% grain protein in the USA2 cultivars. Leucine and isoleucine were the most abundant amino acids in quinoa grains, ranging from 6.7 to 9.2 g/100 g of protein. In contrast, methionine was the least abundant amino acid with less than 1.5 g/100 g of protein.