Analysis and Evaluation of Nutritional Quality in Chinese Radish (Raphanus sativus L.)

Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is an important vegetable crop worldwide. High nutritional quality was critical in its genetic improvement and production. The nutritional quality of 42 Chinese radish cultivars was analyzed in this study. The contents of six nutritional facts, dry matter (DM), crude fiber (CF), total soluble sugar (TSS), vitamin C (VC), protein, and nitrate, ranged from 29.7 to 88.2, 4.507 to 18.546, 2.233 to 15.457, 0.1416 to 0.3341, 0.34 to 1.15, and 1.81 to 5.89 g kg−1 fresh weight (FW), respectively. Significant differences among the 42 radish cultivars were detected in the contents of nutritional facts. The data were subjected to cross-correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). It was found that DM content was positively correlated with the content of TSS (r = 0.7104), VC (r =0.4011) and protein (r = 0.4120). Vitamin C (VC) content of radish showed a positive correlation (r = 0.3300) with the protein content. According to the principal component analysis, out of the 42 radish cultivars, Nau-17, Nau-28, Nau-6, Nau-11, Nau-10, Nau-27, and Nau-31 were detected with very high scores in comprehensive evaluation. It could be concluded that abundant diversity of nutritional fact content occurred in different radish genotypes, and PCA analysis was effective for selecting radish germplasm with high quality. The results could contribute useful knowledge of nutritional quality, and provide important germplasms for the elite cultivar development and the inheritance study of nutritional facts in radish.