Potato glycoalkaloids (PGA) are potentially toxic to human at high levels and current safety regulations have recommended that PGA content in tubers should not exceed 20 mg/100g·FW. The purpose of this study was to evaluate α -chaconine, α-solanine and total PGA content in tuber peel and flesh of 24 potato cultivars including ‘Haryeoung’, ‘Goun’, ‘Hongyoung’ and ‘Jayoung’. The total PGA ranged from 3.1 to 10.1 mg/100g·FW and 41-85% of total PGA was accumulated in tuber peel in all cultivars. Potato cultivars with lower level of PGA were ‘Jasim’ (3.1 mg/100g·FW) and ‘Goun’ (3.4 mg/100g·FW), whereas ‘Haryoung’ exhibited the highest level of PGA, 10.1 mg/100g·FW. Especially ‘Jasim’ and ‘Goun’ with the lower level of PGA can be consumed along with the peel on tubers. Also, these results provide the composition and levels of PGA in various potato cultivars for food safety and breeding of new cultivars with low levels of PGA for potato breeders and farmers.

Potato glycoalkaloids (PGAs) are potentially toxic to humans at high levels, and current safety regulations have recommended that PGAs content in tubers of potato cultivars should not exceed 20 mg/100gFW. Accordingly, it is important to determine the PGAs composition and level on potato cultivars for food safety and the breeding for new cultivars with low levels of PGAs. The main aim of this study was to evaluate α-chaconine, α-solanine, and total PGAs content in the peel and cortex portions in four recent cultivars (‘Haryoung’, ‘Goun’, ‘Hongyoung’ and ‘Jayoung’), released by Highland Agriculture Research Center, together with ‘Superior’ and ‘Atlantic’. The total PGAs ranged from 16.5 to 47.7 mg/100gFW. The α-solanine/α -chaconine ratio was 1:3.2 (‘Jayoung’), 1:3.5 (‘Hongyoung’) and 1:2 (‘Superior’), whereas α-solanine was not detected in ‘Goun’, ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Hongyoung’ under the analytical condition of this experiment. 75-94% of total PGAs was existed in the peel part of all cultivars. We selected two cultivars (‘Atlantic’ and ‘Goun’) showing lower PGAs content in the cortex part. During storage at 4°C, total PGAs content fluctuated widely in early stage of storage and stabilized gradually over time in ‘Hongyoung’, ‘Superior’ and ‘Jayoung’. Thus, through the selection of cultivars and storage conditions, these results will provide consumers and breeders with fundamental information about the content of PGAs in Korea major cultivars.