Comparative evaluation of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) germplasm for seed physical and culinary traits

Abstract: The amount of water absorbed during soaking by dry beans before cooking may be a reliable indicator of the amount of time required to render them soft and palatable to eat. The present study was undertaken in kharif 2012 at Regional Research Station Wadura. Fifty diverse germplasm accessions (local and exotic) representing different growth habits and market classes were compared with Shalimar Rajmash-1, a high yielding bush variety released by SKUAST-K, for 12 seed morphological and physical characters namely seed colour, seed brilliance, seed shape, seed coat pattern, dry seed weight, soaked seed weight, seed length, seed breadth, seed coat proportion, water absorption ratio, hydration capacity and swelling capacity. There was a broad range of variation in the traits studied as revealed by the range and coefficient of variation (%). The CV was highest for swelling capacity (18.62) followed by water absorption (16.281), hydration capacity (13.61), soaked seed weight (10.712), dry seed weight (3.056) and coat proportion (1.221). However, CV was very low for seed length and seed breadth owing to low variation in these traits. The correlation between different traits was also worked out and revealed that highest correlation was recorded between dry weight and soaked weight (0.874) followed by hydration capacity and swelling capacity (0.720), seed dry weight and hydration capacity (0.710), dry weight and water absorption (0.308), indicating that the seeds with greater cotyledon mass absorbed more water and that greater water absorption leads to greater swelling. However, negative correlations were recorded between coat proportion and water absorption (-0.550) and between dry weight and coat proportion (-0.325). Seed physicochemical traits including the traits used in present study could be effectively used for comparing large set of germplasm lines for cooking qualities as the varieties that have high hydration and swelling capacities are usually fast to cook.