Proceedings of the XLVII Italian
Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress
Verona,
Italy - 24/27 September, 2003
ISBN 88-900622-4-X
Poster
Abstract - 5.21
N.
BERARDO*, O. V. BRENNA**, A. AMATO*, P. VALOTI*, V. PISACANE*, M. MOTTO*
*) Experimental
Institute of Cereal Research, Maize-Section Bergamo, Italy
**) Department
of Food Science and Microbiology, University of Milan, Italy
carotenoid,
NIRS, maize, genotypes
Maize
is one of the most important agronomic crop in the world. It provides food and
feed for human and resources for
many unique industrial and commercial products. Maize is in North Italy irrigated plane one of the major incoming
cultivation for its high biomass production and high nutritive value. Two
general classes of carotenoid pigment, carotenes and xanthophylls, are primary
responsible for yellow color of maize grain. The composition of carotenoids and
tocopherols in grain has been studied extensively due to their importance in
animal nutrition. The carotenoids are important feed constituents of maize
because carotenes are precursors of vitamin A, while xantophylls impart a
desiderable yellow color to egg yolks and the skin of poultry. Carotenoids,
have a range of diverse biological functions and actions, especially in
relation to human health. Recent studies have shown that the antioxidant
carotenoids and tocopherols may have the potential to reduce the risk of many chronic
diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. In general, zeaxanthin and
lutein are the major carotenoids present in maize kernels. One problem to
measure level of carotenoid pigments in food plants by genetic approach
strategies has been the complex and time-consuming analyses required to
quantitate the individual carotenoids. Here we reported the carotenoid contents in maize kernel genotypes obtained
by near infrared reflectance
spectroscopy (NIRS). Wide differences among kernel samples were obtained for
the major carotenoids examined in this study with the following fractions:
violaxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, isolutein, cryptoxanthin and carotenes.