Potatoes (
Solanum tuberosum L
.) supplemented with increasing amounts of sodium selenate wereanalyzed for glycoalkaloid (GA) content. GAs were extracted with 5% acetic acid from freeze-driedtubers of two potato cultivars, Satu and Sini, harvested 10 weeks after planting as immature. TheGAs
-solanine and
-chaconine were quantified by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) with diode array detection. Two independent experiments were performed.In the first experiment, the total GA concentration ± standard error of the tubers ranged betwe
en105 ± 9 and 124 ± 10 mg kg
-1 fresh weight in Satu and between 194 ± 26 and 228 ± 10 mg kg
-1fresh weight in Sini. The ratio of
-solanine to
-chaconine was 0.2 in Satu and 0.5-0.6 in Sini. Inthe second experiment, the total GA concentration ± standard error was 75 ± 4 to 96 ± 11 mg kg
-1fresh weight, and the ratio of
-solanine to
-chaconine was 0.3-0.4 in Satu. A high sodium selenatesupplementation (0.9 mg of Se kg
-1 quartz sand) slightly decreased the GA content in Satu, but thisdecrease was not statistically significant. Furthermore, at this addition level the Se concentrationincreased to a very high level of 20
g g
-1 dry weight, which cannot be recommended for humanconsumption. In both experiments, the Se concentration in tubers increased with increasing sodiumselenate application levels. Our results show that acceptable application levels of selenate did nothave an effect on the GA concentration in immature potato tubers.Keywords: Glycoalkaloid; selenium; HPLC