Cultivar influence on carotenoid composition of loquats from Brazil

Cultivar, growing conditions and geographical origin are factors that influence the carotenoid composition in fruits. Because the loquat cultivars evaluated in this study, Centenária, Mizauto, Mizuho, Mizumo and Néctar de Cristal, have not previously been investigated, the present work was carried out to determine and compare the carotenoid composition of these five loquat cultivars, by applying high-performance liquid chromatography connected to a photodiode array and mass spectrometry detectors (HPLC-PDA-MS/MS). Twenty-five carotenoids were separated on a C30 column, and 23 of them were identified. All-trans-β-carotene (19–55%), all-trans-β-cryptoxanthin (18–28%), 5,6:5′,6′-diepoxy-β-cryptoxanthin (9–18%) and 5,6-epoxy-β-cryptoxanthin (7–10%) were the main carotenoids. The total carotenoid content ranged from 196 μg/100 g (cv. Néctar de Cristal) to 3020 μg/100 g (cv. Mizumo). The carotenoid profile of cv. Néctar de Cristal was different from the other cultivars, which was in agreement with its cream pulp colour, in contrast to the other four cultivars with orange pulp colour. Cultivars Mizauto, Mizuho, Mizumo and Centenária showed provitamin A values between 89 and 162 μg RAE/100 g, and can be considered good source of this provitamin.