title: Determining the mineral composition in Cucurbita pepo fruit using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Efforts through conventional breeding to improve the mineral content in horticultural crops have not always been successful mainly due to the fact that standard analytical methods are both costly and time-consuming. We investigated the feasibility of applying near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to the estimation of essential mineral composition in the skin and flesh of summer squash fruits (Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo) using a 200-sample set from diverse morphotypes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The coefficients of determination in the external validation (R(2) VAL) obtained for the skin and flesh of the fruit were: total mineral content, 0.84 and 0.70; P, 0.74 and 0.62; K, 0.83 and 0.67; Ca, 0.57 and 0.60; Mg, 0.78 and 0.45; Fe, 0.78 and 0.65; Cu, 0.67 and 0.66; Mn, 0.67 and 0.64; Zn, 0.80 and 0.79 and Na, 0.33 and 0.33; respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NIRS combined with different spectral transformations by modified partial least-squares (MPLS) regression has shown to be useful in determining the mineral composition of summer squash fruit, being a fast and low-cost analytical technique. Components such as chlorophyll, starch and lipids were used by MPLS for modelling the predicting equations. The promotion of micronutrient-rich summer squash varieties could have a significant long-term beneficial impact on the health of mineral deficient human populations.
authors.affiliation: IFAPA-Centro La Mojonera, Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: Damián
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Martínez-Valdivieso
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Font
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Blanco-Díaz
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Del Río-Celestino
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D028464:Cucurbita / Q000737:chemistry*; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry*; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis*; D018977:Micronutrients; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D018977:Micronutrients
keywords: NIRS; biofortification; calcium; iron; potassium; summer squash