Grain chemical composition of dents, popping maize and sweet maize genotypes

Abstract

Maize is one of the most important field crops both in the world and in our country. All commercially grown maize hybrids can be classified into one of five elementary types: dent, flint, floury, popping and sweet maize. The objectives of this study were to characterize the grain chemical compositions of yellow-seeded and white-seeded maize dents, popping maize and sweet maize genotypes. The results show that grains contents of starch, protein, oil, crude fibre, and ash of four selected maize genotypes ranged in the intervals: 53.54-68.13%; 9.19-13.00%; 4.35-5.39%; 2.13-3.93% and 1.28-2.85%, respectively. The amylose to amylopectin ratio varied from 21:79 to 28:72, which is a principal property of normal maize starch. The content of lignocellulosic fibres: NDF, ADF, ADL, hemicellulose and cellulose ranged from 11.31-15.27%; 2.51-3.54%, 0.24-0.52%, 8.10-12.68% and 2.14-3.02%, respectively. The solubility index of albumin, globulin, zein and glutelin ranged from 9.46-29.42%, 5.64-13.13%, 21.11-28.10% and 18.81-23.69%, respectively

Keywords

• maize
• grain
• chemical composition