Abstract

The present study was aimed at estimating the mineral contents and elucidating nutritious importance of this traditionally grown vegetable, Atriplex hortensis L. from Ladakh region of India. Altogether 70 accessions of 14 populations (five individuals from each population) of A. hortensis L. were collected from different regions. The collected accessions (seeds) were sown in randomized block design (RBD) with three replications at research field of Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR, DRDO) during the cropping season of the year 2015–16. Plants were evaluated for mineral content by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Statistical analysis was carried out for analysis of variance and principal component analysis (PCA) using SPSS ver 21.0 and XLSTAT, 2017. The results demonstrated a high level of variation in 13 estimated mineral elements including Ca, Mg, Zn, Na, K, S, B, Cu (P≤0.01) and Si (P≤0.05). Sulphur (S) was found to be the highest and ranged from 53.090±0.020 to 81.433±0.025 mg/g in the study samples, whereas selenium (Se) was present in very low concentration and ranged from 0.004±0.0001 to 0.089±0.003, respectively. The PCA suggested that Mg, Na, Zn, Si and Ca were highly correlated to the first component (27% of the variability); K, Cu and P to the second component (17% of the variability), and Al and S to the third component (15% of the variability). Altogether 59% of variability was accounted for the first three components (PCA) in the study. The study indicated that Trans-Himalayan vegetable, A. hortensis L. was rich in mineral content and hence had considerable nutritional value. This vegetable is naturally supported by the harsh climate of Ladakh region, therefore, could augment appreciably to the fresh ration requirements of troops and local population.