Nutritional and physicochemical variation in Turkish kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) landraces

We examined the physical, physicochemical, and cooking properties of 91 kabuli chickpea landraces from Turkey, using two cultivars (İnci and İzmir-92) as controls. All landraces were grown under the same agroclimatic conditions to eliminate variance caused by genotype × environment interactions. There was high diversity among the landraces in the contents of protein (17.55–23.31%), fat (4.45–6.11%), ash (2.54–3.41%), fiber (2.03–4.18%), starch (41.76–49.07%), moisture (6.39–10.57%), 100-seed weight (25.03–51.67 g), hydration capacity (0.2585–0.6169 g/ml), swelling index (0.7207–1.1859), swelling capacity (0.15–0.32 ml seed−1), cooking time (33–72 min), and seed density (0.8450–1.4800 g/ml). Regional analysis of landraces showed significant differences with respect to nutritional characteristics and cooking parameters. There were also significant relationships between various seed quality and cooking parameters. Together, our results provide an initial step toward identification of chickpea landraces that may be useful for development of high-quality chickpea cultivars.