Zinc and Iron Profiling in Edible Parts of Some Common Vegetable and Fruit Crops: An Exploration of Inter- and Intra-Crop Variation

Zinc and iron malnutrition is a serious global public health burden largely faced by the developing countries particularly of South-East Asia and Africa. To overcome this, dietary diversity characterized by consumption of ample quantities of vegetables and fruits are often advised. Herein lies the need for screening of different vegetable and fruit crops to have an idea about their inherent ability for zinc and iron accumulation and variability present among their gene pools, which was thus taken as objective of the study. Two predominantly grown crops of each group (viz., vegetables—brinjal, pointed gourd and fruits—mango, banana) along with their available genepools were selected for the purpose. Results showed that zinc and iron accumulation in the edible parts varied significantly among the tested crops, following the order: pointed gourd > brinjal > banana > mango; but there was minimum variation among their respective genepools; native zinc concentration was found to follow the order: mango > pointed gourd > banana > brinjal; whereas native iron concentration followed the order: banana > pointed gourd > mango > brinjal. Thus it can be apprehended that, though these vegetable and fruit crops have the ability to supply a good amount of zinc and iron to our daily dietary intake, there is not much scope for further enhancement of the nutrients in these crops through conventional breeding method owing to the minimum inherent variations among the respective genepools of the crops with respect to zinc and iron accumulation in their edible parts.