Nutritional value of taro (Colocasia esculenta) cultivars from Papua New Guinea

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Scott) je tropska gomoljevka/korenovka, ki uspeva na večini tropskih in subtropskih območij. Namen raziskave je bil analizirati vsebnosti pomembnejših hranilnih snovi (mineralov, škroba, surovih proteinov) v 10 reprezentativnih kultivarjih tara iz Papue Nove Gvineje. Po razklopu vzorcev smo v raztopinah določili koncentracije K z AES, Ca, Zn in Mg s FAAS, Mn, Cu in Fe z ETAAS in P z MAS. Za določitev skupnega dušika smo uporabili Kjeldahovo metodo. Škrob smo določili po Megazxme postopku. Med makroelementi je bilo v kormih največ K (\u27KPOK 35A\u27, 2,28 %) in med mikroelementi Fe (\u27NT 01\u27, 29,4 µg/kg). Vsebnosti škroba so znašale med 66% (\u27Lae Yellow\u27) in 79 % (\u27C5 353\u27 in \u27BC 737\u27), medtem ko so bile vsebnosti surovih proteinov dokaj nizke. Glede na izmerjene vrednosti lahko zaključimo, da so kultivarji v prehrani ljudi pomemben vir škroba in mineralov, še posebno kalija, kalcija, fosforja in magnezija. Prav tako so relativno dober vir Fe, Zn in Cu.Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L) Scott) is an important root crop, grown throughout the tropical and subtropical regions. The aim of the presented research was to determine the content of the most important food nutrients (minerals, starch, crude proteins) in 10 representative cultivars from Papua New Guinea. In the solutions after microwave digestion, the concentrations of K were determined by using ASE. Ca, Zn and Mg concentrations, however, were determined by FAAS. ETAAS was applied for the determinations of Mn, Cu and Fe, and MAS for measurements of P. The Kjeldahl method was applied for the determination of total nitrogen, whereas the total starch was determined by using Magazyme procedure. Potassium was the most abundant mineral (‘KPOK 35A’, 2.28 %). Iron dominated among microelements. The cultivar with the highest Fe content was ‘NT01’ (29.4 µg/kg). The starch contents were high and ranged between 66 % (‘Lae Yellow’) and 79 % (‘C5 353’ and ‘Bc 737’), whereas the levels of crude proteins were rather low. We can conclude that the corms of the sampled taro cultivars can be considered as a good source of starch and minerals, especially potassium, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium in human nutrition. They are also relatively good sources of Fe, Zn, Zn and Cu