Author(s):

Seema and Neelam Khetarpaul

Abstract: Micronutrient malnutrition, the hidden hunger, affects more than half of the world’s population, especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Mineral deficiency is a major problem in both developing and developed countries, and much of this can be attributed to insufficient dietary intake. Over the past decades several measures, such as supplementation and food fortification, have helped to alleviate this problem. In this experiment the available mineral contents of iron, calcium and zinc in leaves of desi and kabuli chickpea did not vary significantly at different day intervals after sowing. However, higher content of these available minerals in leaves were observed at 45 days after sowing available iron content varied from 25.35 to 28.86 per cent in leaves collected at varying time intervals after sowing in both the desi chickpea varieties and did not differ significantly among them. Similar trends were noticed for available calcium and zinc contents. Available iron, calcium, and zinc contents varied from 24.70 to 29.68 per cent; 57.01 to 63.46 per cent and 29.98 to 35.01 per cent in desi and kabuli chickpea varieties. The increase in period of growth of leaves did not affect significantly the available iron, calcium and zinc contents in leaves of both the kabuli varieties.

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