Studies on bio-chemical profiling of Indian gooseberry (Emblica officinalis) for genetic diversity

Biochemical profiling of physiologically mature fruits of 51 diverse Indian gooseberry (Emblica officinalis Gaertn) germplasm accessions was collected from Vindhyan hill region of Madhya Pradesh, with a view to select nutraceutically rich genotypes based on important biochemical traits. The mean ascorbic acid and total phenol (tannin) content amongst different accessions was recorded as 496.47 mg 100 g⁻¹ and 4.88% with highest value found in CISH A-12 (654.50 mg 100 g⁻¹) and CISH A-30 (7.18%), respectively. Apart from the above, wide range of variability in the composition of other important biochemical attributes viz., total soluble solids (8.60-17.70°Brix), acidity (1.61-2.94%), total sugar (4.15-9.17), reducing sugar (2.19-4.45%) and TSS/acid ratio (3.89-8.33) was also recorded. Highest significant and positive correlation was observed between total sugar and TSS (0.895) followed by reducing sugar and TSS (0.882). Significant positive correlation between ascorbic acid and tannins (0.551) was an indication to be associated with binding capacity of ascorbic acid over a longer period of storage.