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Bioavailable carotenoid and cyanogen content of biofortified cassava after food preparation
Author(s) -
La Frano Michael R,
LaPorte Delphine,
Burri Betty J
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.1031.8
Subject(s) - carotenoid , food science , vitamin , biofortification , chemistry , vitamin a deficiency , retinol , biochemistry , micronutrient , organic chemistry
Vitamin A deficiency is common where cassava is a dietary staple, because the diet contains few pro‐vitamin A carotenoids (pVAC) or preformed retinol. Biofortifying cassava so that it is rich in pVAC is an attractive alternative to food fortification or providing vitamin A supplements for preventing vitamin A deficiency, especially in rural areas that are difficult to reach by these interventions. We are investigating the effect of feeding single doses of carotenoid biofortified cassava, with or without oil, on the carotenoid and vitamin A concentrations of healthy adult women fed a low fat, low vitamin A, and otherwise low carotenoid diet. The biofortified variety of cassava contained 12 μg/g total carotenoid and 8 μg/g beta‐carotene, compared to 0.67 μg/g typical non‐biofortified cassava. All cassava, including biofortified varieties, contains cyanogenic glycosides that form cyanide when the plant is cut or processed. The biofortified cassava variety we obtained originally contained 282 ug/g (fresh weight) cyanogen, a harmful amount. Therefore it had to be detoxified before it could be used for human feeding trials, by methods that did not also destroy carotenoids. We explored the effects of repeated 2 hour soakings in distilled water on carotenoid and cyanogen concentrations on peeled, chopped, cassava. The cyanogen content decreased approximately 3X with each soaking, attaining the low level of 1.1 after the 4 th soaking, Soaking, washing, and boiling for 30 min caused small (7 – 19%) decreases in carotenoid concentrations, Thus, soaking and boiling can effectively remove cyanogens while retaining carotenoids in cassava. This research was supported by HarvestPlus.