Effect of cultivar, flesh colour, locality and year on carotenoid content in potato tubers

In this study, twelve cultivars of potato with different flesh colour (yellow, purple and red) were cultivated in 2012 and 2013 in two trial localities in the Czech Republic and evaluated for the main individual carotenoids. The content of total carotenoids (TC) in analysed cultivars ranged in 1.1-12.2 mg/kg in dry matter (DM) and was influenced by genotype cultivar, locality and year. Cv. Agria (yellow flesh) reached 1.8 to 11.8 times higher levels of TC compared with cultivars of coloured flesh. Locality and year of higher average temperatures during the growing season produced higher TC contents in tubers. Genotype significantly influenced the content and composition of individual carotenoids. As in cv. Agria, violaxanthin (41%) and lutein (55-78%) dominated in all cultivars with coloured flesh. The relative content of β-carotene in cv. Agria represented 2% of TC, in cultivars with coloured flesh 5-12% TC.