HPLC-DAD-APCI-MS as a tool for carotenoid assessment of wild and cultivated cherry tomatoes

This article belongs to the Special Issue Quality and Safety of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.Carotenoids are naturally occurring fat-soluble pigments found in many organisms. Because of their extensively conjugated carbon–carbon double bond system, carotenoids are potent antioxidants. Although the most abundant carotenoid and best singlet oxygen quencher found in red tomatoes is lycopene, carotenoid profiles may vary between genotypes. The objective of this work was to perform carotenoid profile indentification using HPLC-DAD-APCI-MS in ten wild cherry tomato accessions and one cultivated tomato. A mixture of hexane/acetone/ethanol (50:25:25) and 0.1% BHT was used for carotenoid extraction. For separation, a C30 column at 30 °C with a gradient consisting of methanol, methyl-tert-butyl ether, and water was used for their analysis. Ten major carotenoids were quantified within cherry tomato samples. All accessions present different profiles and quantities of carotenoids. Wild red tomatoes had more lycopene content that commercial tomato, whereas yellow tomatoes present no lycopene. From a functional viewpoint, higher concentrations of carotenoids that could play an antioxidant activity were measured from accessions IAC401, IAC426, LA1480, IAC391, and LA2692. This trait means that these germplasms may be targets for commercial activities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that HPLC-DAD-APCI-MS has been used to analyze these accessions of wild cherry tomatoes that are both functionally promising and suitable for projects with social implementation at a local scale.This research was funded by MINISTERIO DE CIENCIA, TECNOLOGIA E INNOVACION (COLCIENCIAS) from the Colombian government, grant number 727 of 2015 to L.M.L.G. in the Call for National Doctorates. M.B. acknowledges MINECO for a “Juan de La Cierva-Formación” FJCI-2016-30902 and MICIU for the “Juan de La Cierva-Incorporación” IJC2018-037830-I postdoctoral grants.Peer reviewe