Color of Corn Grains and Carotenoid Profile of Importance for Human Health

Abstract

The increasing on the levels of carotenoids in staple foods of broad human consumption is one of the strategies of food biofortification programs, mainly due to the importance of these compounds to human health on the prevention of vitamin A deficiency. Maize is a major staple food due to its high consumption in regions where problems of Vitamin A deficiency are of great relevance. Maize biofortification programs have made progress in determining the amounts of carotenoids in grain of thousands of accesses. This work aimed at studying the influence of the color of the grains in the profile of carotenoids in four different Brazilian genotypes. The selection of ears within the same genotype was based on a color scale, considering the lighter (lightest yellow) in one group and the most colorful (darkest orange) in another group. Significant interactions (p < 0.05) between the color of the grains and the genotypes for all the variables were detected in addition to genetic variability for both groups (lightest yellow and darkest orange). The colored ears of corn showed a high level of total carotenoids (TC) and fractions in RS 535 and RS 445, and the colorful ears of genotype RS 535 showed 300% more α + β carotenes (μg·g −1 ) in relation to lighter of this same material. The results of this study showed the influence of genotype on the grain color and content of carotenoids, indicating that breeders have the flexibility to make selection of some genotypes based on grain color, reducing cost and time compared to laboratory methods used for the screening of genetic materials.

Comparison of graphical analyses for maize genetic experiments: Application of biplots and polar plot to line × tester design

“…This result relied on the parents in our study (such as IHO, IHP, and HYA), which had higher values for protein and oil contents (Table 4). Total carotenoid content variation in our study was lower than the ones determined in earlier studies (de Almeida Rios et al, 2014). This is because we used white maize inbreds, such as IHO and IHP, in our study, which have lower kernel carotenoid content.…”

“…Thus, increasing oleic acid in maize oil can promote its use for food and industrial purposes (Mittelmann et al, 2003;Pollak and Scott, 2005). Carotenoids are major antioxidant biomolecules in maize grain; increasing carotenoid content is one of the main objectives of bio-fortification (de Almeida Rios et al, 2014). Numerous breeding experiments have been conducted in different countries to develop the abovementioned traits, and breeding materials have been evaluated using different breeding designs.…”

Genetic variation of carotenoids, vitamin E and phenolic compounds in Provitamin A biofortified maize

“…Increasing on the levels of carotenoids in staple foods of broad human consumption is one of the strategies of food biofortification programs, mainly as a result of the importance of these compounds to human health and the prevention of vitamin A deficiency. ProVA biofortified maize has higher content of BC and BCX, not altered levels of TP or T3 and we did not identified changes in the antioxidant capacity measured by TTP.…”

Assotiation of total carotenoid level in maize grain (Zea mays L.) with polimorphic site InDel1 in PSY1 gene

“…В одних работах представлены ре-зультаты, согласно которым слабая корреляция вы-явлена между окраской зерна и общим содержанием каротиноидов (R 2 = 0,18) и содержанием β-каротина (R 2 = 0,03) [12], в других, напротив, показано, что более насыщенный цвет зерна связан как с более вы-соким накоплением общих каротиноидов, так и про-А каротиноидов [2]. Большинство авторов склоняются к мнению, что у кукурузы различия в интенсивности окраски зерна могут быть связаны с уровнем содержа-ния общих каротиноидов, но не с концентрацией про-витамина-А [8,10].…”