Delaying the harvest induces bioactive compounds and maintains the quality of sweet potatoes

Physiological Responses of Minimally Processed Sweet Potatoes Grown with Increasing Doses of Phosphate Fertilizer

The present work aimed to study oxidative damage and protection, phenylpropanoid metabolism, and the quality of minimally processed colored sweet potatoes cultivated with increments in P2O5 fertilization. Sweet potato was cultivated with 0, 60, 120, 180, and 240 kg ha-1 of P2O5. The roots were harvested, and the P content in the roots and leaves was quantified. The roots were minimally processed and kept for 20 days at 5 °C. In general, the roots that were fertilized with P2O5 showed a higher content of the analyzed variables. The highest P dosage in the soil increased the P content in roots and leaves and the agro-industrial yield. Roots cultivated with P2O5 showed a higher content of hydrogen peroxide, phenolic compounds, vitamin C, yellow flavonoids, anthocyanins, and carotenoids, antioxidant capacity by the DPPH method, and higher activity of the enzymes polyphenol oxidase, peroxidase, and phenylalanine ammonia lyase. These results demonstrated the role of phosphorus in protecting against oxidative damage due to the accumulation of bioactive compounds, thus improving the physicochemical quality of minimally processed orange sweet potato.

Eszett (ẞ; ß)-carotene is an erroneous, non-existent false positive of beta (β)-carotene

There are several isomers of carotene, the main ones being alpha and beta carotene (i.e., α-carotene and β-carotene). The latter serves as a precursor for vitamin A, and is thus a well-studied carotenoid in health, food, and nutrition research. A German special character, the Eszett (uppercase or capital ẞ; lowercase ß), has been confused with the Greek, lowercase beta (β) in some papers in the biomedical literature, and when the lowercase Eszett is written in italics, it looks even more similar to the Greek letter beta. Curiously, this linguistic error has given rise to a "new" form of carotene, Eszett (ß)-carotene, which does not exist. A search on PubMed, Elsevier's sciencedirect.com, and Springer Nature's SpringerLink platforms reveals that there are potentially dozens, if not hundreds of cases or more of this false-positive carotene "isomer," which was supposed to represent β-carotene, but has, through a typographic error, represented a "new" and non-existent form of carotene, ß-carotene. This clearly represents erroneous literature that needs correction.