Effect of cultivar, location and year on total starch, amylose, phosphorus content and starch grain size of high starch potato cultivars for food and industrial processing

In recent time the interest of industry increases particularly in processing and use of potato high amylopectin (AMP) starches. Therefore the plant breeders effort to obtain “waxy” potato cultivars with low amylose (AMS) content. In this four-year study sixteen potato cultivars grown on five experimental locations were evaluated on the percentage of AMS/AMP by enzymatic method, starch content by the underwater weight method, phosphorus (P) content in starch digests spectrophotometrically, and starch granule size determined by laser diffraction method. Between enzymatic and iodine–potassium iodide method good correlation has been revealed (r = 0.71). The correlation analysis between AMS and P levels showed a clear negative correlation. For all measured parameters (starch, AMS, P, starch granule size) significant impact of cultivar has been determined. Location and year have lower, but significant impact. No statistically significant effect of year on AMS has been found. The cultivar Amado distinguished with the highest AMP and P contents and the cultivar Westamyl showed all positive values interesting for growers and processors.