2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sample materials
Black carrots (Daucus carota L. ssp. sativus var. atrorubens Alef.)
and orange carrots (Daucus carota L. ssp. sativus) used in this study
were cultivated in Cuevas Bajas, (Ma´ laga, Spain), harvested in
autumn of both 2010 and 2011. Both varieties of black and orange
carrots were obtained from alluvial soils, deep and fairly uniform
silty-sandy loam texture rich in organic materials. These soils
permit infiltration drainage, allowing frequent watering. The
fertilizers used were mainly green manure. The planting season
began in late August with harvest in mid-November to late
December. Random sampling was used to obtain different carrots
(3 independent samples of each variety during harvest time) of
every cultivar. After harvest, the samples were washed and stored
at 4 8C until analysis; the experiments were performed in the
following week in order to obtain the most representative results
from fresh carrots without affecting food composition (Greenfield
and Southgate, 2003).