Cereal Chem 40:250 - 259.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Carotenoid, Oil, and Tocopherol Content of Corn Inbreds.

F. W. Quackenbush, J. G. Firch, A. M. Brunson, and L. R. House. Copyright 1963 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Analyses of 125 inbreds which are well known to corn breeders in the Midwest showed wide ranges in carotenoid and tocopherol composition. Each inbred showed its own characteristic distribution of the eleven carotenoid fractions for which analyses were made. Provitamin A, calculated from the biologically active pigments as beta-carotene equivalency, ranged from a trace to 7.3% gamma per g. of corn. Lutein, the preponderant xanthophyll component, ranged from 2 to 33 gamma per g. Total oil content ranged from 1.2 to 5.7% among the inbreds. The range of estimated iodine values was 111 to 151, and of total tocopherols 0.03 to O.33% of the oil. There was no apparent correlation between provitamin A content and the percentage or composition of the oil. The quality as well as the yield of the nation's corn crop is evidently quite dependent upon the inbreds selected as parents.