Chickpea is a major source of energy and micronutrients for majority of population in Africa. However, comprehensive studies have not reported on the effects of genotype, cultivation location, and year on chickpea flour characteristics. To address this, 11 selected chickpea varieties were grown at three locations in Ethiopia, during 2010 and 2011, representing three environments, and composition of proximate, minerals and functional in chickpea flour were determined. The cultivation environment, the cultivation year and the chickpea genotypes, as well as their interactions significantly affect the functional properties and nutritional composition of chickpea. High proportion of the total variation for all studied parameters explained by the main effects of variety indicates a significant heritability for them. Growing location was found to have a significant effect on all functional properties except OAC, total ash, crude fat, crude protein, carbohydrate, energy, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. Year was found to affect OAC, WAC, SC, FS, EA, total ash, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. Rainfall is the climate characteristic that may be responsible for these year-dependent differences. HC and SC (r = 0.902) and energy and fat (r = 0.800) shows positive correlation whereas, carbohydrate and protein (r = -0.896) and energy and fiber (r = -0.674) showed negative correlation. The current study established a better understanding of the varietal effects of genotype and environment on functional and nutritional composition properties of chickpea flours.
Keywords: Chickpea, Varieties, functional properties and nutritional composition
