155ash content. In general, high concentrations of
macro-elements such as phosphorus (330 ± 81
mg/100 g), potassium (253 ± 27.81 mg/100 g), mag-
nesium (129 ± 16 mg/100 g) and calcium (13.12 ±
2.66 mg/100 g) was observed in the Indian rice cul-
tivars. The levels of macro-elements found in the
present study was comparable with the values ob-
tained by Zeng et al. (2009) in 28 indica brown rice
from China. Phosphorus content was highest in T.
Basmati (465 mg/100 g) and lowest in Aathira (195
mg/100 g). More than 80 percent of the total phos-
phorus content in rice occurs as phytate that func-
tions in chelating and storing phosphorus in the
seed (Oatway et al., 2001). Magnesium content
ranged from 86 mg/100 g in MLT-E-2 to 149 mg/10 0
g in Chageli variety. The variation in calcium content
was from 6.8 mg/100 g in Aanashwara to 17.1 1
mg/100 g in Pantdhan-12. Mean ± SD content of
manganese and copper was 1.56 ± 0.35 and 0.34 ±
0.11 mg/100 g respectively. Copper content was low
ranging from 0.14 to 0.84 mg/100 g. Manganese
content was lowest in Aathira (0.77 mg/100 g) and
highest in MLT-M-11 (2.13 mg/100 g). Element
transfer from soil to brown rice has been studied
and inter-regional differences in the concentration
of various elements were not found to be substan-
tial in many cases (Jung et al., 2005). The order of
the concentrations of elements in brown rice in this
study was phosphorus > magnesium > calcium >
zinc > manganese > iron > copper. Similar
trends have been observed by other investigators
conducting studies on different rice varieties
(Ogiyama et al., 2008).
Grain iron content ranged from 0.57 mg/100 g in
Aathira to 4.04 mg/100 g in MLTE-5 with an average
of 1.36 ± 0.59 mg/100 g on dry weight basis. Fre-
quency distribution of iron content showed that 46
percent of the samples had less than 1 mg/100 g,
48 percent had 1 – 2 mg/100 g and 6 percent had
more than 2 mg/100 g. Rice grain iron content has
been reported to be in the range of 0.2 – 5.2 mg/100
g by Juliano and Bechtel (1985). A much lower iron
content has been reported in wild rice accession
(1.25 – 2.27 mg/100 g), advance breeding lines (0.81- 1.28 mg/100 g) and landraces (0.48 – 1.62 mg/100
g) in 46 Indian rice genotypes by Chandel et al.
(2010). Compared to the present study higher iron
content in the range of 0.70 – 6.35 mg/100 g with an
average of 2.28 mg/100 g on dry matter basis was
reported for 95 Chinese varieties (Wang et al., 1997).
Similarly high iron content in the range of 0.5 – 6.7
mg/100 g has been reported in 90 Australian rice
varieties (Marr et al., 1995) while Korean rice vari-
eties showed low content of 0.16 – 1.4 mg/100 g
(Kim et al., 2004). Interestingly high iron content of
5.06 ± 1.05 mg/ 100 g has been reported in improved
indica cultivar from China (Zeng et al., 2009). On the
other hand low iron content of 1.2 mg/100 g was re-
ported in Vietnamese rice (Phuong et al., 1999). The
coefficient of variation observed for grain iron con-
tent in the present study was as high as 43 percent
which indicates ample room for improving rice iron
content.
Grain zinc content ranged from 1.46 mg/100 g in
Lalat to 3.87 mg/100 g in MLT-M-14 with a coeffi-
cient of variation of 19 percent. Frequency distribu-
tion showed that 73 percent of the samples had zinc
content in the range of 1 – 2 mg/100 g and 14 per-
cent had more than 2 mg/100 g. Varying grain zinc
content in 46 rice genotypes from India was found
to be 2.96 – 4.17 mg/100 g in wild rice accession,
1.67 – 3.01 mg/100 g in advance breeding lines and
2 .07 – 2.96 mg/100 g in landraces (Chandel et al.,
2010 ). Zeng et al. ( 2009 ) found zinc content of 2.57
± 0.67 mg/100 g in improved Indian cultivars which
is comparable to 2.64 ± 0.50 mg/100 g found in the
present study though higher zinc content of 3.3 4
mg/100 g has also been reported in 57 Chinese rice
varieties (Wang et al., 1997). Increased nitrogen fer-
tilizer application did not produce significant in-
creases in grain iron and zinc content in rice
(Chandel et al., 2010). The width between the lowest
and highest zinc content in the present study was
2.41 mg/100 g while that of iron was much higher at
3.47 mg/100 g. Rice is not a rich source of iron and