Uploaded October 2018 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
After my most recent potato reveal video digging some diploid potatoes, I stated I would make a video comparing their uncooked and cooked colors alongside Yukon Gold. Yukon Gold is a very popular and common tetraploid potato in the USA and Canada, and so it makes a good reference potato with yellow flesh for comparison to these diploids.
It is very common for phureja type diploid potatoes to have very brightly colored skin, and often for the flesh colors to be intensely pigmented with yellow, red, or purple pigments. The yellow carotenoid pigment levels in these diploids can range almost 22 times higher than in standard tetraploid potatoes like Yukon Gold. I am happy to see that some of the diploid potato seedlings I am growing this year are so much more intensely yellow than plain old Yukons.
Although these yellow carotenoid pigments in potatoes are very close structurally to Beta Carotene and other provitamin A carotenes, the human body cannot convert them into Vitamin A. They are however very powerful antioxidants, and the two primary potato carotenes- Lutein and Violaxanthin- are very important pigments for the protection of the retinal macula from damage from ultraviolet and blue light. So these pigments are an extremely healthy addition to the diet for a variety of reasons.
After my most recent potato reveal video digging some diploid potatoes, I stated I would make a video comparing their uncooked and cooked colors alongside Yukon Gold. Yukon Gold is a very popular and common tetraploid potato in the USA and Canada, and so it makes a good reference potato with yellow flesh for comparison to these diploids.
It is very common for phureja type diploid potatoes to have very brightly colored skin, and often for the flesh colors to be intensely pigmented with yellow, red, or purple pigments. The yellow carotenoid pigment levels in these diploids can range almost 22 times higher than in standard tetraploid potatoes like Yukon Gold. I am happy to see that some of the diploid potato seedlings I am growing this year are so much more intensely yellow than plain old Yukons.
Although these yellow carotenoid pigments in potatoes are very close structurally to Beta Carotene and other provitamin A carotenes, the human body cannot convert them into Vitamin A. They are however very powerful antioxidants, and the two primary potato carotenes- Lutein and Violaxanthin- are very important pigments for the protection of the retinal macula from damage from ultraviolet and blue light. So these pigments are an extremely healthy addition to the diet for a variety of reasons.
