MaydicaOriginal paper Open Access Anthocyanins content in the kernel and corncob of Mexican purple corn populations 1 1 2 Carmen Gabriela Mendoza-Mendoza , Ma. del Carmen Mendoza-Castillo *, Adriana Delgado-Alvarado , Francisco Javier Sánchez-Ramírez3,Takeo Ángel Kato-Yamakake1 1 Postgrado en Recursos Genéticos y Productividad-Genética, Campus Montecillo, Colegio de Postgraduados, Km 36.5 Carretera México- Texcoco. 56230, Montecillo, Texcoco, estado de México, México. 2 Campus Puebla, Colegio de Postgraduados. Boulevard Forjadores de Puebla No. 205.72760. Santiago Momoxpan, Municipio San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, México. 3 Departamento de Fitomejoramiento, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro. Calzada Antonio Narro 1923, Buenavista, Saltillo, 25315. Coahuila, México. * Corresponding author: E-mail:
[email protected] Keywords: Zea mays L., purple corn,anthocyanins, native corn, and San Juan Ixtenco, Tlaxcala. Abstract Purple corn has acquired great interest by its high content of anthocyanins and bioactive properties. Among this type of corn the Andean purple corn has been the most studied, however, in Mexico, we have the “maíces mora- dos”, which is recognized by its dark purple color. Since there is no record about its content of anthocyanins, in this study we quantified the total anthocyanins (TA) accumulated in the pericarp, aleurone layer, kernel, and corn- cob of 52 corn populations with different grades of pigmentation. Results showed that TA was superior in purple corn than in blue and red corn. TA ranged from 0.0044 to 0.0523 g of TA ∙ 100 g-1 of biomass in the aleurone layer; in the pericarp from 0.2529 to 2.6452 g of TA ∙ 100 g-1 of pericarp; in the kernel from 0.0398 to 0.2398 g of TA ∙ 100 g-1 of kernel and in the corncob from 0.1004 to 1.1022 g of TA ∙ 100 g-1 of corncob.