Chemical composition of potatoes. V. Further studies on the relationship of organic acid concentrations to specific gravity and storage time

Summary

A study of the relation of acid content to specific gravity for both Maine and New York Katahdin potatoes (1960-crop) indicated that on a dry basis the concentration of most of the acids including that of citric varied inversely with specific gravity. On a fresh-weight basis more of the acids varied directly, with citric acid showing a particularly strong direct relationship. These results corroborated previous work with 1959-crop Maine Katahdins, especially the finding that on a fresh-weight basis high specific gravity, and therefore high solids, potatoes had a higher citric acid content.

Data on the change in acid content with storage time agreed only partly with the 1959-crop data, possibly because results for the second and third months of storage could not be obtained in the present study.

As with the 1959-crop, sprouts contained much more phosphoric and oxalic acids and less aspartic and citric acids than the tubers. However, changes in the concentrations of some of the other acids differed in direction for the two crops.