Relationship between rice grain amylose and pasting properties for breeding better quality rice varieties

One hundred and sixty‐seven rice varieties/laudraces from 23 different rice‐growing countries were used for studying the relationship between the amylose content (AC %) and paste viscosity parameters (RVU) through Pearson correlation. AC and paste viscosity parameters were measured using Auto Analyser and Rapid Visco Analysers respectively. Based on all five RVA pasting properties, i.e. peak viscosity (PV), minimum viscosity (MV), breakdown (BD), final viscosity (FV) and setback (SB), the simple paired t‐test (at P = 0.05) was carried out to identify varieties that showed non‐significant differences (similar) from the check variety, separately for each of the four AC groups, e.g. Waxy rice AC (0–8%, n = 21) –‘IR29’ (Philippines); Low AC (8.1–16%, n = 58) –‘Koshihikari’ (Japan); Intermediate AC (16.1–24%, n = 64) –‘Local Sadri’ (Iran); high AC (>24.1%, n = 24) –‘Kasalath’ (India). Significant variation among the rice varieties for AC and pasting properties were observed. Means of the AC and the viscosity parameters including PV, MV, BD, FV and SB were 15.8, 416.1, 180.3, 235.8, 380.9 and 200.6 RVU respectively. Significant correlations existed between AC and paste viscosity parameters at AC group level. The paste viscosity parameters, i.e. PV, BD and SB are important within an AC group as far as cooking quality is concerned. In the low AC group, ‘Koshihikari’ (check) was most preferred by Japanese consumers, which was used for identifying 16 varieties that showed non‐significant differences for pasting properties with it. Some of the important Japanese varieties were ‘Todorokiwase’, ‘Owarihatamochi’, ‘Sasanishiki’, ‘Reimei’ and ‘Kinuhikari’. These varieties had good cooking quality with low AC, high PV and BD with low SB. In contrast, the Iranian cultivar ‘Local Sadri’ with good cooking quality had intermediate levels of AC and SB while recording high PV and BD. The varietal diversity for pasting properties available within each AC group may allow the breeder to make effective selections for improving the cooking quality according to consumer choice.