Read more
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the dietary staple over half of the world's population including Sri Lanka. The country harbors many traditional or indigenous rice varieties which had been in the diet for centuries. Some of these varieties are claimed to have wide range of health properties according to Sri Lankan traditional knowledge and folklore. The present study is a comprehensive investigation of physicochemical and health properties of Sri Lankan traditional rice. Findings clearly showed that Sri Lankan traditional rices possess consumer preferred dietary important physicochemical properties and medically important health food properties. Red rices exhibited superior health enhancing properties compared to white rices. Moreover, brans of red rices may have a great promise as functional foods/supplements/nutraceuticals for management of diabetes, cancer and inflammatory diseases. Collectively findings indicate the importance of use and application of diverse indigenous rice genetic resources in Sri Lanka to improve nutritional and health status of people in the country.
About the author
Dr. W K S M Abeysekera has pursued BSc (Agriculture) and MSc (Food & Nutrition) from University of Peradeniya and PhD (Nutritional Biochemistry) from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is a Research Scientist at Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), Sri Lanka and has more than 10 years research experience in the area of functional foods.
