Abstract:
Sri Lanka is a rich treasurable land of traditional rice cultivation and rice is the primary staple food
in Sri Lanka. There are many unpopular rice varieties which have been derived from traditional rice varieties
and their nutritional values are under investigation. One such novelSri Lankan red pericarp rice variety known
as Gurupiya is focused on this study. Agronomic characters of novel rice variety was evaluated according to
IRRI 1998. Standard methods of AOAC nutritional guidelines were used to obtain the proximate composition of
Gurupiya rice variety (GPRV). AOCS methods were used to analyze oil profile. Fatty acid profile was
determined by using GCMS. The results showed that crude protein, crude fiber, crude fat and carbohydrate
contents were12.0±0.1 %, 1.5±0.1 %, 2.6±0.4 %, 75.9±0.1 % respectively. Calorie content was 375.0 kcal/100g.
According to the results, GPRV have high Zn content (4.82 mg/100 g). Fatty acid composition of the GPRV
revealed that more than half of the total fatty acids were made up of unsaturated fatty acids (USFA) which are
considered as important for good health. Results showed that iodine value (IV), acid value (AV), saponification
value (SV) and peroxide value (PV) of GPRV were 72.1 ± 3.5 g I2/100 g, 21.4 ± 2.7 mg KOH/g, 202.13 ± 2.5 mg
KOH/g and 18.6± 1.1 meq O2/kg, respectively. The results reveal that novel GPRV shows high nutritional values
than that of reported for the improved rice varieties. Therefore, consumption of GPRV will aid in the
improvement of health condition
