Title of project: Extraction, identification and stability analysis of maize anthocyanins
Objective:

• Evaluation of maize germplasm for anthocyanin pigments and phenolic compounds
• Development of color maize based value added products

Project team:
Dr. Bharat Bhushan (Scientist-Senior Scale;Biochemistry)
Dr. Manesh C. Dagla (Scientist-Sr. Scale; Plant Breeding)
Dr. Dharam P. Chaudhary (Principal Scientist; Biochemistry)

Major achievements: –

• Selected lines of blue maize (EC1008272-89) from Iowa State University (GRIN portal) have been imported. These were checked for phyto-sanitary certification by ICAR-NBPGR and allowed to sow in the rabi-19-20 season for germplasm maintenance at the winter nursery centre of ICAR-IIMR.
• Selected lines of color maize accessions (IC77473,IC77530,IC77569,IC81992,IC81999
  IC82079,IC327012,IC328975,IC447464,IC556407,IC565888,IC565889,IC5
  68221,IC568290,IC568293,IC591025,IC593966,IC594104,IC594107,IC594
  133,IC594142,IC594220,IC594225,IC594390,IC594391,IC594407,IC59441
  6,IC594433,IC596719,EC444469) from NBPGR, New Delhi have been
  procured. Since the samples were mixture of different color seeds e.g. genetically impure so the seeds were grown at Ladhowal farm in Kharif-2019 and plants were selfed to get homogeneous set of seeds on the cob.
• Indigenous purple, red and black maize lines collected by ICAR-IIMR have been used for screening the germplasm rich in total anthocyanin and other phenolic compounds. Apart from it, the starch and protein content of these lines has been evaluated to explore the correlation of anthocyanin and storage reserves in extraction yield and reserve mobilization.