Potato tubers are an important agricultural crop containing carotenoids, an important group of secondary plant metabolites showing positive health benefits. This paper examines nine carotenoids at weekly intervals in three cultivars with different flesh color during the tuber maturation process, as analyzed by HPLC-DAD. Total carotenoids showed a bell-shaped distribution with maximum values in the middle of the tuber maturation process rather than in ready-to-harvest tubers. Xanthophylls (viola-, anthera-, neoxanthin and lutein) were the predominant carotenoid forms found in the cultivars. Red and purple-fleshed cultivars contained only a quarter of the total carotenoids of a commercial cultivar with yellow flesh. Weather conditions moderately influenced the carotenoids of the xanthophyll cycle. In red or purple-fleshed tubers no relationship was found between total carotenoids and total anthocyanidins.

马铃薯块茎是一种含有类胡萝卜素的重要农作物，类胡萝卜素是重要的一组次生植物代谢产物，对健康有积极作用。通过HPLC-DAD分析，本文在块茎成熟过程中，每周检查三个具有不同肤色的品种的九种类胡萝卜素。总的类胡萝卜素显示出呈钟形分布，在块茎成熟过程中呈最大值，而不是在现成的块茎中。叶黄素（中提琴，花药，新黄嘌呤和叶黄素）是在品种中发现的主要类胡萝卜素形式。红色和紫色果肉品种仅占具有黄色果肉的商业品种类胡萝卜素总量的四分之一。天气状况对叶黄素循环的类胡萝卜素有中等程度的影响。