alt="Effect of storage period on provitamin-A carotenoids retention in biofortified maize hybrids"/>
(A) Retention of carotenoids in crtRB1-based maize hybrids; (B) Variation for retention of PVAC in proA rich maizehybrids after five months of storage; PVAC: provitamin-A carotenoids; NPVAC: Non-provitamin-A carotenoids.
Summary
Vitamin A-rich maize hybrids provide sustainable solutions to malnutrition. However, significant loss of carotenoids during storage reduces its efficacy. Grains of nine sub-tropically adapted crtRB1-based biofortified hybrids along with six normal hybrids were stored under conventional storage for five months. PVAC (β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin) among crtRB1-based hybrids degraded from initial level of 18.77 to 3.24 µg g−1, while NPVAC (lutein and zeaxanthin) reduced to 10.79 µg g−1 from 19.00 µg g−1 during storage. Among PVAC, β-cryptoxanthin (21.8%) possessed more stability than β-carotene (16.4%). For NPVAC, lutein (61.2%) showed the highest retention than zeaxanthin (50.4%). Majority of the PVAC loss occurred within first three months of storage. Retention for PVAC among crtRB1-based hybrids varied from 14% to 23% indicating the role of favourable genetic factors. APQH1, APQH7 and APH2 were the promising hybrids with higher retention (>20%) of PVAC. This is the first report on identification of provitamin A-rich crtRB1-based biofortified maize hybrids with higher retention during sub-tropical storage.