Abstract
Micronutrient scarcity is a universal challenging apprehension and roughly half of the global population has micro elements deficiency primarily iron and zinc. Bio-fortified wheat being natural rich source of minerals will be beneficial for diminishing prevalence of iron and zinc malnutrition among masses. A panel of fifty bread wheat genotypes from national wheat breeding program were qualitatively tested and quantitatively verified for different micro elements via cheaper qualitative and standard techniques. Results showed that a simple association uncovered highly affirmative significant correlation of zinc with all micro elements. Magnesium linked positively highly significant with calcium whilst calcium positively significantly allied with iron. In addition, the remaining micro nutrients depicted positive association with one another. PC1 have eigen value 1 while PC2 and PC3 were at par to 1 which added 69.9% of total disparity. The deliberated traits disjointed into 5 clusters which hold 8, 14, 12, 13 and 3 genotypes. On biplots, the genotypes those contiguous jointly were perceptible as being similar when appraised on five elements while elements which were more distant were more diverse from other genotypes. As regards quantitative confirmation, all 50 genotypes dropped in diversified ranges for iron and zinc content. Dithizone and Prussian blue procedures were found to be effective, novel and cheaper qualitative techniques for zinc and iron assessment in massive wheat genotypes. The genetic stock examined can be used as a valuable yardstick for breeding strategies (bio-fortified wheat) and wheat processing industry for enterprising growing malnutrition and magnification encounters of food safety.