Antioxidant Profiling of Native Andean Potato Tubers (Solanum tuberosum L.) Reveals Cultivars with High Levels of β-Carotene, α-Tocopherol, Chlorogenic Acid, and Petanin

The antioxidant profile of 23 native Andean potato cultivars has been investigated from a human nutrition perspective. The main carotenoid and tocopherol compounds were studied using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) and a fluorescence detector, respectively, whereas polyphenols (including anthocyanins in colored tubers) were identified by means of both HPLC−mass spectrometry and HPLC-DAD. Antioxidant profiling revealed significant genotypic variations as well as cultivars of particular interest from a nutritional point of view. Concentrations of the health-promoting carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, ranged from 1.12 to 17.69 µg g−1 of dry weight (DW) and from 0 to 17.7 µg g−1 of DW, with cultivars 704353 and 702472 showing the highest levels in lutein and zeaxanthin, respectively. Whereas β-carotene is rarely reported in potato tubers, remarkable levels of this dietary provitamin A carotenoid were detected in 16 native varieties, ranging from 0.42 to 2.19 µg g−1 of DW. The amounts of α-tocopherol found in Andean potato tubers, extending from 2.73 to 20.80 µg g−1 of DW, were clearly above the quantities generally reported for commercial varieties. Chlorogenic acid and its isomers dominated the polyphenolic profile of each cultivar. Dark purple-fleshed tubers from the cultivar 704429 contained exceptionally high levels of total anthocyanins (16.33 mg g−1 of DW). The main anthocyanin was identified as petanin (petunidin-3-p-coumaroyl-rutinoside-5-glucoside). The results suggest that Andean potato cultivars should be exploited in screening and breeding programs for the development of potato varieties with enhanced health and nutritional benefits.