Discrimination of African Yams Containing High Functional Compounds Using FT-IR Fingerprinting Combined by Multivariate Analysis and Quantitative Prediction of Functional Compounds by PLS Regression Modeling

Abstract

We established a high throughput screening system of African yam tuber lines which contain high contents of total carotenoids, flavonoids, and phenolic compounds using ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy in combination with multivariate analysis. The total carotenoids contents from 62 African yam tubers varied from 0.01 to 0.91 μg·g -1 dry weight (wt). The total flavonoids and phenolic compounds also varied from 12.9 to 229 μg·g -1 2 ) between predicted values and estimated values of total carotenoids, flavonoids and phenolic compounds were 0.83, 0.86, and 0.72, respectively. These results showed that quantitative predictions of total carotenoids, flavonoids, and phenolic compounds were possible from FT-IR spectra of African yam tuber lines with higher accuracy. Therefore we suggested that quantitative prediction system established in this study could be applied as a rapid selection tool for high yielding African yam lines.