Evaluation of lettuce genotypes for mineral content

Lettuce is considered as a high value vegetable due to its richness in phytonutrients. Nowadays, it is produced all the year round and consumed fresh so that all the ingredients stay intact. Estimation of different elements in different types of lettuce is essential in developing nutritionally rich, good quality varieties for cultivation. Sixty two genotypes comprising both heading and non-heading types were analyzed for six mineral content such as Calcium, Sulphur, Zinc, Copper, Manganese and Iron. The genotypes studied belonged to six lettuce types, namely Latin (three), Stem (five), Crisphead (thirteen) Butterhead (Eight), Leaf (twenty three) and Cos (ten). Overall, latin types were rich in sulphur, while crisphead types were rich in calcium and copper and butterhead in zinc, manganese and iron. The stem types, however, were found to be lesser in most of the minerals compared to other types. The Pennlake Crisphead lettuce genotype had highest calcium content (390.07 ppm), New chicken stem type had highest sulphur content (7.80 ppm), L-S-2 leaf type had highest zinc content (29.91 ppm), Balmoral crisphead type had highest copper content (10.98 ppm), Great takes Katrain crisphead type had highest magnesium content (44.94 ppm) followed by Sheetal crisphead type (44.11 ppm) and All source butterhead type had highest iron content (605.52 ppm). The comprehensive analysis helped by providing detailed information about the composition of minerals of different types as well as genotypes. The information so obtained will go a long way in developing mineral content dense lettuce varieties.