Morphological and nutritional assessment of Vigna vexillata (L.) A. Rich.: a potential tuberous legume of India

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NOTES ON NEGLECTED AND UNDERUTILIZED CROPS

Morphological and nutritional assessment of Vigna vexillata (L.) A. Rich.: a potential tuberous legume of India Kuldeep Tripathi . P. G. Gore . A. Pandey . E. R. Nayar . C. Gayacharan . R. K. Pamarthi . R. Bhardwaj . A. Kumar

Received: 30 April 2020 / Accepted: 16 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Abstract Vigna vexillata (L.) A. Rich. is a tropical tuberous legume which is fascinating for multiple uses in India. It is a climate-resilient legume and reported as a source of bruchid resistance, abiotic stresses tolerance and proteinaceous tubers. Meagre information is available for storage roots (tubers) of V. vexillata in general in the Indian scenario. In the present study, the evaluation of morphological and nutritional traits of storage roots are presented along with the genetic resources study. Herbarium study verified its wide distribution and occurrence in India since ancient time. Significant variability was observed for tuber morphological traits and nutritional parameters. Among accessions studied, IC259504 was identified promising agronomically and nutritionally both. Protein content in tubers of V. vexillata was recorded up to eightfold higher than that in sweet potato and tapioca. Results indicated that this species has the potential to meet the future needs of food and nutritional security and further utilization in Vigna improvement programme. Keywords India  Potential  Protein  Root tuber  Tuber cowpea

K. Tripathi (&)  P. G. Gore  A. Pandey  E. R. Nayar  C. Gayacharan  R. K. Pamarthi  R. Bhardwaj  A. Kumar ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR), New Delhi 110 012, India e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction Vigna vexillata (L.) A. Rich (subgenus Plectrotropis; family Fabaceae) is a potential and under-exploited legume known by several names viz. tuber cowpea, zombi pea, wild cowpea, etc. It is pan-tropical herbaceous legume occurring in major continents Africa, Asia, Australia and America. In India, it is found in the hilly-subhilly tracts of peninsular India and the Himalayan region in the protected and partly disturbed areas. Southern Africa and South-east Asia are reported as primary and secondary centres of diversity, respectively (Wong 1997). V vexillata, a wild species closely related to the cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is used for its storage roots, protein-rich seed, forage and erosion control plant (Hacker et al. 1996; Garba and Pasquet 1998). It is one of the underutilized legumes with potential for commercial exploitation. In India, it is locally called Halunda (Marathi), Banoria Urahi (Assamese), Kattupayar (Malayalam), Mudgaparni (Sanskrit) and Latchai (Bengali). Its fusiform roots are eaten raw or boiled in tribal pockets of Indian hills (Arora and Pandey 1996) and considered superior to sweet potato in flavours and nutrition (Arora 2014). Variability in germplasm was observed in sub-temperate, western and eastern ghats and north-eastern