β-carotene Bioavailability and retention in Biofortified Maize (Zea mays L.) after Processing and Preparation of Indian foods Sandesh G. M.1, Kumar C. Saran1, Bharathi P.1, Dhasarathan M.2, Karthikeyan A.2, Meenakshi V.2, Thangaraj K.1, Vellaikumar S.3, Baskaran V.4, Senthil N.5,* 1Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India 2Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India 3Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India 4Department of Biochemistry, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India 5Department of Plant molecular biology and bioinformatics, Center for Plant molecular biology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India *Corresponding author: Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai-625104, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: senthil_natesan@tnau.ac.in
Online published on 11 January, 2019. Abstract β-carotene rich maize hybrids were developed to target vitamin A deficient populations in developing countries. However, processing the maize into food products may reduce its β-carotene content. Thus, understanding β-carotene retention is important for assessing efficacy of biofortified foods. The objectives of this study were to determine the concentration of β-carotene in biofortified maize hybrids as well as to evaluate their retention during processing of popular maize foods consumed in India. The β-carotene content in maize hybrids and their food products were estimated through high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results showed that β-carotene content ranged from 0.61–6.35μg/g in raw maize inbreds, after invitro digestion the bioavailabity of β-carotene ranged 0.33–4.03 μg/g. In food products the retention of β-carotene was 24.14–58.78% as the β-carotene degradation will be influenced by the processing methods and external environmental conditions like light, temperature, pH, oxidation and storage. In conclusion, the degradation of β-carotene occurs during digestion storage and cooking thus for development of biofortified maize hybrids the bioavailability and their retention plays a significant role. This study demonstrates, there is a need to optimize and recommend maize processing methods in which there will be maximum retention of provitamin A, β-carotene to ensure optimum delivery of β-carotene to consumer. Top Keywords β-carotene, maize, β carotene retention, invitro digestion, Bioavailability. Top |