Carotenoids in potatoes - a short overview

Abstract

Carotenoids are one of major lipophilic constituents contributing to total antioxidant activity and provitamin content of potato, a major non-cereal staple food. The review briefly discusses health promoting properties of carotenoids and especially their contents and composition in different potato cultivars affected by flesh colour (white-, yellow-, purple- and red-fleshed) and the effect of selected factors on carotenoid total and individual levels, such as genotype, breeding, tuber development, heat processing - cooking, storage, effect of year, locality, etc. The aim of the recent research is obtaining potatoes with higher levels of beneficial carotenoids to improve one the most popular vegetables in the world.

Keywords

• phytonutrients
• solanum tuberosum
• xanthophylls
• thermal processing and storage