Species, variety and maturity affect β-carotene and lycopene in pumpkin fruit

Carotenoids in pumpkin are nutritionally important as antioxidants, while the relationship between species, maturity and carotenoids and also the accumulation of carotenoids during fruit growth have not been extensively analyzed. We investigated β-carotene and lycopene contents of nineteen pumpkin varieties by HPLC. The adopted HPLC method was dependable and provided good separation of β-carotene and lycopene. The formation of β-carotene during pumpkin growth did not present a special formation phase except for one variety, while the accumulation rate of β-carotene differed among varieties, ranging from 1.5 to 32.0 µg/100 g per day. Low concentrations of lycopene were detected in six pumpkin varieties having high content of β-carotene. Maturity and species all had significant effect on β-carotene content (P < 0.05). The β-carotene content in C. maxima was about 3.3 times that in C. moschata (P < 0.05) and 2.0 times higher in early maturity varieties compared to middle-late varieties (P < 0.05). The varieties were separated into three groups of similarity by β-carotene content and average single fruit weight after applying hierarchical cluster analysis, and some early maturity C. maxima varieties especially containing β-carotene over 950 µg/100 g fresh wt., could be good sources of pro-vitamin A.