Studies on keeping quality and proximate composition of different orange fleshed sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) genotypes under ambient storage

Abstract

Sweet potato is positioned as the sixth most major food crop in the world, fourth in tropical countries and fifth most essential food crop on a fresh weight basis in developing countries after rice, wheat, maize and cassava. Orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), in particular produces storage roots rich in β-carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A. Therefore, OFSP is a promising genotype to address the Vitamin A deficiency needs of women & children and to prevent malnutrition in poverty & tribal areas. However, sweet potatoes face the problem of weevils, shrinkage and loss of nutrients in storage. Therefore, present research on shelf-life and physicochemical parameters of 7 different orange sweet potato genotypes were studied in order to determine the varieties for better storage. Among those, the genotype HUB-66 was found best with lowest firmness on all the days of observation, minimum loss in PLW and volume at the end of the storage by exhibiting higher shelf life of 12 days. Highest beta carotene content was found in the genotype ST-14 (13.23 mg/100g) with L* a* b* values 78.58. 1.29 and 7.96 respectively. Lowest per cent of weevil incidence was noticed in TSP16-3 on 4 and 8 DAS (5.05 and 13.20% respectively).