1 2 Original Research Article 3 The content of selected minerals and vitamin C for potatoes (Solanum 4 tuberosum L.) from the high Tiber Valley area, southeast Tuscany 5 Gabriella Tamasi Q1 a, *, Matteo Cambi a , Nicola Gaggelli a , Antonella Autino b , 6 Mauro Cresti b , Renzo Cini a 7 a Dipartimento Q2 di Biotecnologie, Chimica e Farmacia BCF – Universita ` di Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, I-53100 Siena, Italy 8 b Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita – Universita ` di Siena, Via Pier Andrea Mattioli 4, I-53100 Siena, Italy 9 10 1. Introduction 11 Q4 Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) spread to Europe from the 12 Americas in the late 1500s (Camire et al., 2009) and immediately 13 became very important for human nutrition in the ‘‘Old Word’’ as 14 well. Nowadays, potatoes are cultivated in more than 160 countries 15 (AAFC, 2007), with more than 4000 cultivars (Hils and Pieterse, 16 2007). As has been reported by Camire et al. (2009) ‘‘the potato 17 now ranks third, behind rice and wheat, for human food, as the use 18 of corn for bio-fuels and animal feed has lessened its human food 19 application’’. Although the areas where potato cultivation is 20 rapidly increasing are in Asia and Africa, specific areas in Europe 21 and in the Americas might play a role for the production of 22 particular varieties that are designed for assuring certain quality 23 standards and dietary requirements. Because of this, more research 24 on the concentration of certain nutrients such as macro- and 25 microessential metals, antioxidants and vitamins in these tubers 26 should be pursued in order to guarantee healthy human nutrition 27 and successfully compete in global markets. Such research must be 28 combined with study of the chemical nature of the soil along with 29 the quality of the water used for irrigation, in order to maintain 30 unpolluted areas and to strictly observe local, national and 31 community regulations on food and the environment, and to 32 select areas with proper solar irradiation and climate parameters. 33 The efforts of several local and national governments are being 34 oriented more and more towards ‘‘niche’’ local productions, and 35 Tuscan regional authorities are taking the lead on this task in Italy 36 (Expo Rurale Toscana, 2013). 37 Moreover, it is unfortunately very well known that agriculture 38 has been – and in certain regions in the world still is – a significant 39 contributor to the pollution of soil and surface water. Vast and 40 indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides, along with tractor Journal of Food Composition and Analysis xxx (2015) xxx–xxx A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 18 November 2013 Received in revised form 18 December 2014 Accepted 30 December 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: Potatoes Solanum tuberosum L. Horticulture Microelements Vitamin C Graphite furnace atomic absorption Chromatography Minerals Essential microelements Toxic elements in the food chain Heavy metals Food safety Food composition Food analysis A B S T R A C T Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) from the high Tiber valley area (TVA; Tuscany, Italy), have been sampled and analyzed for selected mineral content (Na, Mg, K, Ca, and Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn) and vitamin C, the year 2012; some samples from 2011 and 2013 crops were also collected and analyzed. The varieties were Daytona (DAY), Kennebec (KEN), Sifra (SIF) and Volare (VOL). Control samples consisted of mixed commercial varieties from the local market, namely C1, C2 and C3. The low content of sodium, especially for KEN (46  3 mg/kg FD (freeze dry), year 2012) and SIF (47  3) (VOL (55  3) and DAY (61  3) have a little higher values) is worth of note and in agreement with the scarce concentration of Na in the soil (291  12 mg/kg DM). Magnesium was abundant in KEN (1434  75 mg/kg FD, year 2012) and VOL (1334  70). The content of K for DAY and KEN (13,147  900 and 13,185  900 mg/kg FD) was higher than for VOL and SIF; whereas Ca was in the range 340  16–490  28 mg/kg FD. The contents of Cu and Zn were higher in KEN (8.1  0.3 and 25  1 mg/kg FD) when compared to the other varieties and controls. The content of vitamin C is high for KEN and SIF and decreased significantly upon cooking (50% for KEN). ß 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0577234368 Q3 . E-mail address: tamasi@unisi.it (G. Tamasi). G Model YJFCA 2544 1–8 Please cite this article in press as: Tamasi, G., et al., The content of selected minerals and vitamin C for potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) from the high Tiber Valley area, southeast Tuscany. J. Food Compos. Anal. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2014.12.028 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Food Composition and Analysis jo u rn al ho m epag e: ww w.els evier .c om /lo cat e/jfc a http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2014.12.028 0889-1575/ß 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.