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Determining the mineral composition in Cucurbita pepo fruit using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy
Author(s) -
MartínezValdivieso Damián,
Font Rafael,
Gómez Pedro,
BlancoDíaz Teresa,
Del RíoCelestino Mercedes
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.6667
Subject(s) - cucurbita pepo , squash , flesh , partial least squares regression , cucurbita , reflectivity , composition (language) , chemistry , food science , mineral , chemical composition , horticulture , mathematics , biology , linguistics , statistics , physics , philosophy , organic chemistry , optics
BACKGROUND Efforts through conventional breeding to improve the mineral content in horticultural crops have not always been successful mainly due to the fact that standard analytical methods are both costly and time‐consuming. We investigated the feasibility of applying near infrared reflectance spectroscopy ( NIRS ) to the estimation of essential mineral composition in the skin and flesh of summer squash fruits ( Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo ) using a 200‐sample set from diverse morphotypes. RESULTS The coefficients of determination in the external validation ( R 2 VAL) obtained for the skin and flesh of the fruit were: total mineral content, 0.84 and 0.70; P, 0.74 and 0.62; K, 0.83 and 0.67; Ca, 0.57 and 0.60; Mg, 0.78 and 0.45; Fe, 0.78 and 0.65; Cu, 0.67 and 0.66; Mn, 0.67 and 0.64; Zn, 0.80 and 0.79 and Na, 0.33 and 0.33; respectively. CONCLUSIONS NIRS combined with different spectral transformations by modified partial least‐squares (MPLS) regression has shown to be useful in determining the mineral composition of summer squash fruit, being a fast and low‐cost analytical technique. Components such as chlorophyll, starch and lipids were used by MPLS for modelling the predicting equations. The promotion of micronutrient‐rich summer squash varieties could have a significant long‐term beneficial impact on the health of mineral deficient human populations. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry