Colour is one of the most important visual attributes of food and is directly related to the perception of food quality. The interest in natural colourants, especially β-carotene that not only imparts colour but also has well-documented health benefits, has triggered the research and development of different protocols designed to entrap these hydrophobic natural molecules to improve their stabi...

Despite the national vitamin A and antihelminthic prophylaxis programmes, both intestinal geohelminths and subclinical vitamin A deficiency continue to be prevalent among children in developing countries. Studies on potential synergistic effects of vitamin A supplementation and deworming on retinol status have inconsistent results. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impacts...

In 1981 it was hypothesized that a high dietary intake of n-carotene might reduce human cancer rates. Since then, several observational epidemiologic studies have addressed this topic. The results of both case-control and cohort studies show a remarkable consistency for the association of increased lung cancer risk with low amounts of dietary 3-carotene or low plasma /3-carotene concentrations....

Winter squash "type butternut" is harvested in physiological ripening for better commercial distribution, when sensory and/or nutritional quality is not optimum for consumption. The objective of this study was to quantify the content of α-carotene, β-carotene, color and dry matter in the pulp of raw and microwave-cooked winter squash "type butternut" (variety CosmoF1) in three states of commerc...

I T HAS been widely reported in the literature that carotene from different sources varies in its biological value (Ward, i94o; Fraps and Meinke, Rubin and Bird, t94i; Smith and Otis, i94i; Jones et al. I944). Since much of this work has been done with cattle, poultry, and small laboratory animals it has little direct application to sheep nutrition. If the efficiency of utilization of carotene ...

conclusions light and temperature were both relevant factors that contributed to the growth and beta-carotene accumulation of the three d. salina strains, and nahco3 had significantly positive effects on growth. the degree of impact of the different factors on cell growth was temperature > nahco3 > light intensity > kno3 > co (nh2)2 > strains; the impact on beta-carotene accumulation was temper...

The function of gene sll0033 from Synechocystis 6803 which is homologous to the bacterial crtI-type phytoene desaturase genes was elucidated as a novel carotene isomerase. Escherichia coli transformed with all genes necessary for the formation of zeta-carotene and expressing a zeta-carotene desaturase synthesized the positional isomer prolycopene (7,9,7',9'Z lycopene) which cannot be cyclized i...

Carotenoid concentrations were measured in serum and in both non-cancerous and cancerous gastric mucosal tissues of Korean patients with gastric cancer (n = 18). Carotenoids in serum and gastric tissue were extracted with chloroform/methanol (2:1), and measured using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with a C30 column. Cryptoxanthin and -carotene were the major carotenoids in...

β-carotene is one of the major carotenoids in the human diet which shows pro-vitamin A activity, and is associated with prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and immune system enhancer. However, the poor water-solubility, high melting point, and chemical instability of carotenoids is currently a challenge to their application in the food sector. In this research, the characteristics of...

BACKGROUND: Vitamin A which is found in different tissuesand organs plays a particular role in detecting clinical signs invarious deficiency conditions. However, sometimes the marginaldeficiency is present in a way that clinical signs are not visible butperformance defects, such as infertility is seen. OBJECTIVES: Inthis study, the normal baseline levels of vitamin Aand β-carotene inclinically ...