Selected orange-fleshed sweet potato genotypes with high dry matter and beta-carotene contents

Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes with high beta-carotene content mostly have high moisture and low dry matter contents, giving low recovery of the flour produced as well as moist and tender attributes of the steamed roots. Therefore, promising genotypes with high dry matter and beta-carotene contents were selected among 10 orange-fleshed genotypes. The moisture content of 68.55-85.80% negatively correlated with the dry matter content (R²=0.93). Similarly, the lightness value (L*) of the flesh colour that varied from light (87.2) to dark orange (68.2) showed negative correlation with beta-carotene content of 1,994-11,608 µg 100 g^-1 fw (R²=0.84). MSU 14007-42 gave the highest dry matter content (31.31%) with beta-carotene content of 3,399 µg 100 g^-1 fw. Meanwhile, MSU 14001-20 and MSU 14009-39 had lower dry matter contents (25.33 and 27.77%) but higher beta-carotene levels (4,332 and 7,746 µg 100 g^-1 fw). These three genotypes are promising to be released as new cultivars with higher dry matter contents relative to those of 'Beta 1' (21.5%) and 'Beta 2' (22.3%), the previous orange-fleshed cultivars. Among three genotypes, the steamed root of MSU 14007-42 gave the highest scores of colour, texture, and taste preferences, thus suitable for steamed food purposes.