Beta-carotene Content of Banana Genotypes from Uganda
June 24, 2011| |
Vitamin A deficiency is one of the prevailing health problems across the globe. Thus, improving the Vitamin A content of staple foods such as banana is considered as a sustainable approach towards optimizing Vitamin A intake for the long term. This led Robert Fungo of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Uganda and Michael Pillay of Vaal University of Technology in South Africa to determine the beta-carotene content of 47 banana genotypes from the IITA germplasm collection in Uganda. They used high-performance liquid chromatography to determine the beta-carotene levels and color meter to assess the correlation between pulp color intensity and beta-carotene content.
Results showed that there were varied beta-carotene levels within and among the different types of banana studied. The highest levels of beta-carotene were observed in banana genotypes from Papua New Guinea, which could be used in genetic studies on Vitamin A in banana. It was also observed that there was positive correlation between pulp color intensity and beta-carotene concentration.
Read the research paper at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/PDF/pdf2011/20Jun/Fungo%20and%20Pillay.pdf.
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