Carotenoid content of three varieties of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) grown under organic and conventional production systems

Abstract

The sweet potato is a nutritious, easy-to-grow food with varieties rich in β-carotene, pro-vitamin
A, with the potential to correct hypovitaminosis A, a cause of blindness and mortality in
poor populations. Studies relate organic cultivation system to the increase of carotenoids in
vegetables compared to those of conventional cultivation system. In order to investigate the
relationship between organic and conventional systems with carotenoid content, this work cultivated
three varieties of sweet potato, Rosinha de Verdan, IAPAR 69, and a variety of yellowish
pulp (purchased from a producer of Cachoeiras de Macacu, RJ, Brazil) and evaluated the total
carotenoid content of each variety in both systems. Carotenoid contents were higher in organic
sweet potatoes, although the incidence of West Indian Sweet Potato Weevil were higher, which
may have led to the increase of these plant secondary metabolism compounds, due to stress
caused by the pest or other edaphoclimatic factors.