Abstract
Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch) is one of the crop foods targeted for nutritional enhancement by biofortification due to the relatively high content of pro‐vitamin A carotenoids in some varieties. We investigated the effect of three common styles of home cooking of pumpkin on retention and the bioaccessibility of pro‐vitamin A carotenoids in five genotypes of biofortified pumpkin developed by Embrapa. Pulp from three of the biofortified genotypes contained greater than 450 µg/g FW total pro‐vitamin A carotenoids with all‐<em style=”mso‐bidi‐font‐style: normal;”>E‐βC being most abundant. Retention of pro‐vitamin A in pulp after boiling in water or water with 60% sucrose for 5 min or steaming for 7 min decreased pro‐vitamin A content by 5‐22% and 13‐22% in two of the genotypes with highest content of pro‐vitamin A, but there were no losses of pro‐vitamin A in the other genotypes. Bioaccessibility of pro‐vitamin A as assessed by <em style=”mso‐bidi‐font‐style: normal;”>in vitro digestion of cooked pumpkin was poor (0.3‐3.3%). Despite the low efficiency of micellarization, the amount of bioaccessible pro‐vitamin A provided in a 100g serving of boiled and steamed flesh of genotype 58 was approximately 30 and 21%, respectively, of the EAR of vitamin A for children 4‐8 and 9‐13 years of age, respectively.
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