Nutritional, antinutritional and antioxidant assessment of immature Abelmoschus pods: Implications for crop improvement from cultivated and wild varieties

Crop wild relatives hold significant potential for enhancing diversity, nutrition, and stress resilience in improvement programs. As such thorough, the biochemical assessment of these wild counterparts becomes indispensable. Okra, a vital vegetable crop renowned for its vibrant green pods, faces various productivity challenges due to diverse stresses, and its nutritional and stress tolerance aspects have been somewhat overlooked. In this current research, an extensive evaluation was conducted on both wild and cultivated okra species to decipher their nutritional, anti-nutritional, and antioxidant profiles. The results of the proximate analysis showed that wild okra exhibited higher nutritional value and antioxidant potential compared to cultivated species. Remarkably among the wild species A. moschatus accessions IC 470737 and IC 140986 stood out for their elevated content of carbohydrates (93.10 % and 69.38 %), soluble sugars (84.36 % and 41.83 %), reducing sugars (19.41 % and 38.11 %), and vitamin E (37.23 % and 51.24 %); whereas A. Manihot and A. tetraphyllus had higher antioxidant potential. Significantly, these wild entries also showcased the reduced anti-nutrient content suggesting high mineral bioavailability compared to cultivated ones. So, these wild genotypes having a good combination of many biochemical characteristics can be used for the introgression of traits in cultivated okra for further end product diversification.