Potato constituents

This limited overview on the analysis of four classes of the following secondary potato metabolites is, except for anthocyanins, largely limited to our own studies of glycoalkaloids, calystegine alkaloids, and phenolic compounds. Because interest in these potato constituents arises from potential health benefits and occasional toxicity, we also include in this overview a brief discussion of these aspects that relate to composition and a description of experimental methods. The interested reader should consult the cited references for an entry into the extensive worldwide literature on the diverse analytical and biological aspects for these metabolites. 

Assessment of whether a chemical has the potential to cause adverse effects in humans arises usually from direct observation of an effect in animals or humans, such as the acute poisoning episodes that have occurred when potatoes contain high levels of glycoalkaloids. Epidemiological studies have also been used to infer a possible relationship between intake of a particular type of food, or constituent of that food, and the potential to cause an adverse effect. Such observations led to the characterisation of the aflatoxins as human carcinogens. However, natural toxic substances that occur in plant foods have often been identified through observations in animals, particularly farm animals. It was observations of adverse effects in farm animals that led to the further characterisation of the phytoestrogens and the mycotoxins. In other instances, the concern arises from the chemical similarity to other known toxins. 

If amylases are to be used as tools for the detailed study of the breakdown and structure of their substrates it is obviously important to separate them from other enzymes and from other naturally associated constituents which may influence the results. It is then equally important to study the properties of the purified amylase and to supply it with the chemical environment necessary to protect it from inactivation and to enable it to act efficiently. With beta amylases this ideal has often been approached. Beta amylases from several sources have been prepared by selective inactivation of other enzymes that accompany them in nature23 and highly active products have been obtained by extensive purification.20 24-26 Balls and his associates have recently reported the crystallization of beta amylase from sweet potato.27... 

Source Pyridine occurs naturally in potatoes, anabasis, henbane leaves, peppermint (0 to 1 ppb), tea leaves, and tobacco leaves (Duke, 1992). Identified as one of 140 volatile constituents in used soybean oils collected from a processing plant that fried various beef, chicken, and veal products (Takeoka et al., 1996). 

Fernandes, J. B., Griffiths, D. W., Bain, H., Fernandes, F. A. N. (1996). The development and evaluation of capillary electrophoretic methods for the determination of the major phenolic constituents of potato Solanum tuberosum) tubers. Phytochem. Analysis, 7, 253-258. 

Thygesen, L. G., Thybo, A. K., Engelsen, S. B. (2001). Prediction of sensory texture quality of boiled potatoes from low-field IH NMR of raw potatoes. The role of chemical constituents. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft und-Technologie, 34,469-477. 

Methionine can be obtained from enzymatic protein hydrolysates or from petrochemical sources. To a lesser extent than cysteine, it is a raw material in Maillard reactions for the preparation of process flavours and it can also be utilised as a precursor for the chemical preparation of the sulfide methional, which is an important flavour constituent for potato, malt, seafood and many other flavours. Methional can be reduced to methionol, which can be esterified with organic acids to, for instance, methionyl acetate and methionyl butyrate, which are useful compounds for pineapple and other fruit flavours (Scheme 13.16). 

Long-carbon-chain secondary alcohols (.ver-alkanols) are not common constituents of insect cuticular lipids (Buckner, 1993). Espelie and Bemays (1989) reported that the cuticular lipids of Manduca sexta larvae reared on tomato or potato foliage contained... 

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