Author(s)

Reena Grittle Pinhero¹, Rong Tsao², Qiang Liu², James Alan Sullivan³, Benoit Bizimungu⁴, Rickey Y. Yada^1,5

¹Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.
²Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph Food Research Centre, Guelph, Canada.
³Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.
⁴Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Fredericton, Canada.
⁵Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

The effects of processing and genotype (fourteen early potato varieties) were evaluated for their phytochemicals, total phenolics (TPC), total flavonoids (TFC), total anthocyanins (TAC), antioxidant activities measured by ORAC, FRAP and DPPH assays and protein content. While all these profiles were highly dependent on the potato variety and processing, F09085, F10090, French Fingerlings, Purple Fiesta, Red Thumb, Ciklamen and Norland were identified as nutritionally rich in phytochemicals such as TPC, TFC, TAC, higher antioxidant capacities and protein (p < 0.05). In general, TPC, TFC and TAC increased after processing and were highest in the retrograded samples as compared to the raw samples, whereas protein contents decreased following processing (p < 0.05). Significant and positive correlations were observed between TPC, TAC, TFC, FRAP, ORAC and DPPH assays (R², 0.63, 0.83, 0.88, 0.87, 0.69 for uncooked, 0.48, 0.84, 0.76, 0.89, 0.79 cooked and 0.40, 0.87, 0.88, 0.60, 0.68 retrograded samples, respectively, p < 0.0001).

Potato, Phenolic Content, Anthocyanins, Antioxidant Potential, Protein

Pinhero, R. , Tsao, R. , Liu, Q. , Sullivan, J. , Bizimungu, B. and Y. Yada, R. (2016) Protein and Phenolic Contents and Antioxidant Activities of 14 Early Maturing Potatoes as Affected by Processing. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 7, 69-81. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2016.71008.