Comparative evaluation of ground and un-ground grain Samples of pearl millet (pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) And Sorghum (sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) for total zinc and iron contents

A study was conducted at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India to compare grain Zn and Fe determined in ground and un-ground samples of a range of sorghum and pearl millet cultivars varying in grain size. The 1000 grain weight of pearl millet samples ranged between 4.7 and 9.4 g for the small grain cultivars, whereas for the bold grain cultivars it ranged from 10.0 to 13.0 g. In sorghum, the grain size ranged between 9.6 and 19.3 g for the small grain cultivars and ranged from 26.9 to 46.4 g for the bold grain cultivars. Grain Fe in pearl millet cultivars determined using ground samples ranged from 26.6 to 81.5 mg kg'' and it ranged from 26.5 to 81.7 mg kgs' when determined with unground samples. Grain Zn ranged from 18.7 to 73.7 mg kg" for ground and from 19.5 to 72.1 mg kg" for the un-ground samples. The analysis of variance indicated a significant difference in grain Fe due to grain size for the ground and un-ground pearl millet samples. However, there was no significant difference in grain Zn due to grain size between ground and un-ground samples. For sorghum, grain Fe varied from 18.2 to 65.1 mg kg-' in ground samples and from 19.0 to 65.0 mg kg-' in un-ground samples. Grain Zn ranged from 16.9 to 61.0 mg kg-' in ground and from 16.5 to 6 1.0 mg kg" in un-ground samples. There was no significant difference due to grain size between ground and un-ground samples for both Fe and Zn. There was a significant correlation between grain Fe and Zn values determined using ground and un-ground pearl millet and sorghum cultivars. The results of this study with selected but diverse cultivars suggest that grain Fe and Zn in sorghum and pearl millet can be determined on un-ground samples and obviously there is a need to further confirm these results with a larger number of cultivars of these crops.