foods Article Carotenoid and Carotenoid Ester Profile and Their Deposition in Plastids in Fruits of New Papaya (Carica papaya L.) Varieties from the Canary Islands Sara Lara-Abia 1,2, Gloria Lobo-Rodrigo 3 , Jorge Welti-Chanes 2 and M. Pilar Cano 1,2,* 1 Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL) (CSIC-UAM), 28001 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] 2 School of Sciences and Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM), Monterrey 64000, Mexico;
[email protected] 3 Department of Crop Production in Tropical and Subtropical Areas, Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias (ICIA), 38270 Tenerife, Spain;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.:+34-910-017-937 Abstract: The carotenoid profile of non-saponified and saponified extracts of different tissues (pulp and peel) of fruits of three new papaya varieties, Sweet Mary, Alicia, and Eksotika, was charac- terized for the first time, and almost all carotenoid compounds were quantified. Carotenoids and carotenoid esters were analyzed and characterized using HPLC-photo diode array (PDA-MS with + atmospheric pressure chemical ionization with positive ion mode (APCI ) with a C30 reversed-phase column. The carotenoid deposition in collenchyma and chlorenchyma cells of papaya pulp and Citation: Lara-Abia, S.; peel tissues was assessed by optical microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and trans- Lobo-Rodrigo, G.; Welti-Chanes, J.; mission electron microscopy. The most abundant carotenoids in the fruit of the three papaya vari- Cano, M.P. Carotenoid and eties (pulp and peel) were (all-E)-lycopene (230.0–421.2 µg/100 g fresh weight), (all-E)-β-carotene Carotenoid Ester Profile and Their (120.3–233.2 µg/100 g fresh weight), and (all-E)-β-cryptoxanthin laurate (74.4–223.2 µg/100 g fresh Deposition in Plastids in Fruits of weight.