32] Separation and quantitation of carotenoids in foods

Abstract

This chapter describes high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) procedures that allow effective separation and accurate quantitation of individual carotenoids in commonly consumed foods. Carotenoids are one of the most common dietary agents that have been studied as cancer preventive agents. Although the number of naturally occurring carotenoids isolated from various sources is in excess of 600, the number of carotenoids that are abundant in common foods is less than 50. HPLC has been shown to be the most efficient technique for the analysis of sensitive compounds in complex food extracts. Numerous HPLC conditions have been developed to separate the carotenoids in extracts of natural products. Such HPLC procedures can be highly advantageous and provide valuable information on the identity and the levels of these compounds in their natural state in foods. However, HPLC procedures that can be universally used for the separation and quantification of carotenoids in extracts of foods are lacking. The HPLC profiles of extracts from fruits and vegetables are illustrated in chapter.