Comparison of chemical and nutritional compositions between aromatic and non-aromatic rice from Brazil and effect of planting time on bioactive compounds

The objective of this work was to investigate and characterize new rice cultivars still little explored and never reported in the literature but of nutritional and economic potential. For this, the Brazilian cultivars IAC 500 (aromatic) and IAC 2157 (non-aromatic) were analyzed and compared regarding their proximate composition, amylose content, fatty acid composition, vitamin E content, and glycemic and insulinemic responses. An additional goal of the work was to analyze the influence of the planting month on the contents of minerals, phytosterols, and free phenolic compounds from the cultivars planted under the same conditions at four different months of the year. This work presents the first report of the chemical characterization of the Brazilian aromatic rice IAC 500, that present higher ash, protein, lipid, α-tocopherol, and unsaturated fatty acid levels compared with the Brazilian non-aromatic rice IAC 2157. The planting time quantitatively influenced the bioactive compounds, but there was no consensus regarding the best planting time to maximize the content of the analyzed compounds. The main finding of the study is that the ingestion of aromatic rice resulted in a lower insulinemic response compared to non-aromatic rice. Future research is needed to investigate the observed difference in pancreatic insulin release after consumption of aromatic rice.