Biofortification of betanin.

(A) Cultivation scheme for the compound-added spinach (Spinacia oleracea). Triangles indicate the addition of each compound. In the dopamine-added treatment, 2 mM dopamine was added twice to give a final concentration of 4 mM; in the Ca2+-added treatment, 1 mM calcium lactate was added twice to give a final concentration of 2 mM; and in the sucrose-added treatment, 10 mM sucrose was added twice to give a final concentration of 20 mM. (B) Relative betanin concentration in the spinach samples. Bars indicate the means ± standard deviations of three biological replicates. The statistical significance of differences between the compound-added samples and the control samples (no addition of compounds) was determined by Dunnett’s test (* p < 0.05). Control means each red-tube spinach without addition of compounds. Akari, Sosei salad akari; Minster, Banchu akakuki minster.