Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Vegetable crops are rich in dietary micronutrients (minerals,
vitamins), antioxidents and functional phytochemicals
‘nutraceuticals’. However, some of the elements are of public
health concern such as β-carotene, iron, calcium and folic
acid which attracts breeders’ interest to improve their
content in food sources including vegetable crops so that
their dietary intake could be increased and their deficiency
problems reduced. Some nutraceutical compounds such
as anthocyanin, β-carotene, lycopene and glucosinolates
have been reported to play active role in health and their
contents have been found more in beet root, cauliflower,
carrot and broccoli, respectively. The attempts through
conventional breeding methods have been slow and
inadequate, hence new developments in molecular and
biochemical diagnostics tools and techniques showed
promise in improving the nutraceutical contents and other
quality traits. Molecular markers, next generation
sequencing, RNA interference (RNAi) and genetic
engineering have great promise in reducing time and cost
involved in quality breeding. The present review summarise
attempts and potential of improving the nutraceuticals and
quality traits in vegetable crops.
Keywords: Vegetable crops, quality traits, nutraceuticals, molecular markers, breeding.
Year: 2019
Volume: 79
Issue: 1, Supplement
Article DOI: 10.31742/IJGPB.79S.1.12
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
T. K. Behera* and Shrawan Singh info_circle
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