Carotenoids and tocols of corn grain determined by HPLC

Abstract

AbstractA high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) procedure has been developed that permits determinationof carotenoids and tocols in the same sample preparation of corn grain. For 15 inbreds, the total carotenoids ranged from 16 to 77 µg/g dry wt and the total tocols from 30 to 128 µg/g dry wt. For four inbreds, total carotenoids were concentrated in the horny endosperm (83±2%) and total tocols in the germ (77±6%). After six months storage at room temperature, the mean loss of total carotenoids for four inbreds was 42±4%, while the tocols had a mean loss of 5%.