Abstract
Taro, Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, is one of the oldest major staple food crops of tropical regions. This study represents one the first in-depth surveys of taro biodiversity based on corms flesh secondary metabolites fingerprints. Out of the 167 analyzed cultivars, 70 UV-absorbing substances were annotated according to their retention time, UV/vis absorption spectrum, high resolution mass (by HRMS) and fragmentation pattern (tandem MS-MS). They included 6 carotenoids, 35 flavones/flavonols, 6 flavanones, 2 flavanols and 1 indol. Twenty flavones that were glycosylated forms of apigenin, luteolin and chrysoeriol conferred to the corms a yellow color and defined a low abundance (ca. 10% of cultivars) chemotype. Their accumulation negatively correlated with flavanones which were annotated for the first time in taro. Orange flesh corms were characterized by high levels of β-carotene. Secondary metabolite-based chemotypes displayed no geographical distribution pattern.
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