Effect of Genotype and Method of Curing on Leaf Pigments and Nutrient Concentration in Chewing Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum L) Grown in Tamil Nadu

The effect of genotype and curing methods on quality characters of chewing tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) grown in Tamil Nadu were investigated. Seven varieties of chewing tobacco namely I-64, Bhagyalakshmi, Abirami, Meenakshi, Maragdam, Thangam and Vairam were grown under recommended cultural practices and subjected to different curing methods viz., sun-curing, pit-curing and smoke-curing. The total chlorophyll content varied from 0.531 to 1.835 mg/g among the varieties under different curing methods. Smoke cured tobacco showed significantly higher content of chlorophyll (1.793 mg/g) over pit and sun cured tobacco. The varieties Meenakshi and Abirami showed significantly higher content of chlorophyll a (0.825 and 0.967 mg/g). The variety Maragadam showed significantly higher content of chlorophyll (0.480 mg/g) over other varieties. The degradation of chlorophyll was more in sun curing over other curing methods. Sun cured tobacco showed significantly higher content of carotenoids (0.379 mg/g) over smoke cured and pit cured tobacco. The varieties Abirami and Maragadam showed significantly lower content of starch over other varieties. Sun and pit cured samples showed significantly higher content of starch (1.43%) over smoke cured tobacco. The chloride content varied from 4.01 to 5.61% among the varieties under different curing method. Smoke-cured samples have significantly higher level of chlorides over pit and sun-cured samples. Smoke-cured tobacco showed significantly higher levels of potassium over pit and sun-cured tobacco. Sun-and smoke-cured tobacco showed significantly higher levels of total nitrogen over the pit-cured tobacco whereas it was at par in sun-and smoke-cured tobacco. All varieties showed lower levels of nitrogen in pit-curing when compared to other curing methods. The results revealed that, in case of chewing tobacco, the method of curing significantly affects the pigments and nutrient concentrations compared to the genotype.