QUANTITATIVE CHANGE OF CARBOHYDRATE CONTENT OF 2 VARIETIES OF JERUSALEM-ARTICHOKE TUBERS (HELIANTHUS-TUBEROSUS L.) DURING COLD-STORAGE CONDITIONS (4-DEGREES-C)

The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) represents an intere sting source of carbohydrate because of its high fructose content (75 % of total carbohydrates). An experiment on storage of two varieties o f the Jerusalem artichoke tubers ('Kharkov' and 'Violet de Rennes') sh owed that the quality of tubers was preserved during the first 7 weeks of cold storage. Beyond this period, the loss in total carbohydrate c ontent was evaluated at 0.19 % for the 'Kharkov' and 0.26 % for the 'V iolet de Rennes' variety of the fresh matter/week. Between the seventh and the thirteenth week of cold storage the tubers lost about 16.7 % and 19.1 %, respectively, of their initial carbohydrates. From this st udy we came to the conclusion that storage at 4 degrees C for the two varieties ('Kharkov' and 'Violet de Rennes') beyond 7 weeks would caus e a decrease of general reserves in tubers.