Evaluation of orange fruited tomato cultivars for beta carotene content by HPLC and OCC methods

The somatic hybrid derivatives of tomato developed at the Department of Horticulture were needed to be evaluated for beta carotene content by advanced method such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) over traditional method i.e. open column chromatography (OCC). The different tomato cultivars including eight orange fruited and five traditional red fruited cultivars were evaluated for beta carotene content during khan/season. The data revealed that, while estimating beta carotene content by two methods, open column chromatography (OCC) recorded higher mean beta carotene content (3.20 mg/100g) than HPLC method (2.27 mg/100g) among various tomato cultivars. In orange fruited tomato cultivars, the mean beta carotene content was estimated to be 5.38 mg/100g by OCC while 3.78 mg/100g by HPLC method. Similarly in traditional red fruited tomato cultivars, the mean beta carotene content was estimated to be 1.01 mg/100g by OCC while 0.76 mg/100g by HPLC method.