title: Phytochemicals determination and classification in purple and red fleshed potato tubers by analytical methods and near infrared spectroscopy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over the last two decades, the attractive colours and shapes of pigmented tubers and the increasing concern about the relationship between nutrition and health have contributed to the expansion of their consumption and a specialty market. Thus, we have quantified the concentration of health promoting compounds such as soluble phenolics, monomeric anthocyanins, carotenoids, vitamin C, and hydrophilic antioxidant capacity, in a collection of 18 purple- and red-fleshed potato accessions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cultivars and breeding lines high in vitamin C, such as Blue Congo, Morada and Kasta, have been identified. Deep purple cultivars Violet Queen, Purple Peruvian and Vitelotte showed high levels of soluble phenolics, monomeric anthocyanins, and hydrophilic antioxidant capacity, whereas relatively high carotenoid concentrations were found in partially yellow coloured tubers, such as Morada, Highland Burgundy Red, and Violet Queen.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present characterisation of cultivars and breeding lines with high concentrations of phytochemicals is an important step both to support the consideration of specialty potatoes as a source of healthy compounds, and to obtain new cultivars with positive nutritional characteristics. Moreover, by using near infrared spectroscopy a non-destructive identification and classification of samples with different levels of phytochemicals is achieved, offering an unquestionable contribution to the potato industry for future automatic discrimination of varieties.
authors.affiliation: NEIKER-Tecnalia, The Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, P.O. Box 46, E-01080, Vitoria, Spain.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tierno
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Projects and Engineering, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Campus de Arrosadía, 31006, Navarra, Spain.
authors.forename: Ainara
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: López
authors.affiliation: NEIKER-Tecnalia, The Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, P.O. Box 46, E-01080, Vitoria, Spain.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Riga
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Projects and Engineering, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Campus de Arrosadía, 31006, Navarra, Spain.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arazuri
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Projects and Engineering, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Campus de Arrosadía, 31006, Navarra, Spain.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jarén
authors.affiliation: NEIKER-Tecnalia, The Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, P.O. Box 46, E-01080, Vitoria, Spain.
authors.forename: Leire
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Benedicto
authors.affiliation: NEIKER-Tecnalia, The Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, P.O. Box 46, E-01080, Vitoria, Spain.
authors.forename: José I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Ruiz de Galarreta
mesh_terms: D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000737:chemistry*; D035281:Plant Tubers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000737:chemistry*; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D002338:Carotenoids; D001205:Ascorbic Acid
keywords: NIRS; Solanum tuberosum L; carotenoids; monomeric anthocyanins; soluble phenolics; vitamin C