What are the levels of carotenoid in the donated materials?
The Golden Rice version already donated by Syngenta (GR1) has approximately four times more carotenoid than the prototype version (Ye et al. 2000). These grains are a more intense orange/yellow colour and contain more beta-carotene than the 2000 version. The grains harvested from the first field trial, conducted in 2004, showed carotenoid levels between 4.0 and 8.0 micrograms per gram total carotenoid. The latest Golden Rice version (GR2) produces even 23 times the originally reported carotenoid levels (Paine et al. 2005).
Syngenta has donated not only the first generation of improved Golden Rice (GR1), but also a further improved version (GR2). GR1 had four times more carotenoid than the prototype version generated by Potrykus and Beyer in 1999 (Ye et al. 2000). In the first field trials conducted in 2004, rice grains from GR1 had carotenoid levels between 4 to 8 micrograms per gram total carotenoid, GR2 went even further, producing up to 23 times more total carotenoid than in the 1999 prototype (Paine et al. 2005).
