Establishment of a non-destructive prediction model for glycoalkaloid content and bud length in potato tubers

• Content of glycoalkaloid in potato showed an S-shaped increase with bud length. • Sine equation was suitable for predicting glycoalkaloid content based on bud length. • Limitation of glycoalkaloid content can be calculated by Sine equation. • Bud length relationship with glycoalkaloid content depends on the variety of potato. To investigate the relationship between potato tuber bud length and glycoalkaloid content, an optimal prediction model was constructed by comparing the fitting accuracy of the first-order reaction kinetics model, sigmoidal logistical function (type 1), and sine equation. The sine equation better predicted the glycoalkaloid content based on potato bud length; the error between the predicted value and the actual content was <10 %. The prediction model calculated that when the bud lengths of three common potato varieties namely, Dutch No. 15, Kunyuan No. 9, and V7 reached 6.270, 9.540, and 13.354 mm, respectively, the content of glycoalkaloids in potatoes exceeded the human safety limit value of 200 mg/kg.