Content and in-vitro accessibility of pro-vitamin A carotenoids from Sri Lankan cooked non-leafy vegetables and their estimated contribution to vitamin A requirement

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in Sri Lanka, which affects especially pre-school children. Carrots (Daucus carota), pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima), squashes (Cucurbita moschata) and sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) of orange, yellow-fleshed varieties are good sources of pro-vitamin A carotenoids, but have not been studied in Sri Lanka in terms of the food as eaten. The content of carotenoids in each preparation method and the in-vitro accessibility of β-carotene and α-carotene were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The in-vitro method simulates the conditions in the human intestinal tract. The mean contents in dry weight (DW) in different carrot preparations ranged from 406.7 to 456.3, from 183.7 to 213.5 and from 29.0 to 39.6 µg/g for β-carotene, α-carotene and lutein, respectively. The content of carotenoids in different pumpkin preparations varied from 282.1 to 294.4 µg/g DW for β-carotene, from 155.6 to 157.7 µg/g DW for α-carotene and from 218.0 to 228.2 µg/g DW for lutein. The squashes preparation had 44.6 and 40.0 µg/g DW for β-carotene and α-carotene, respectively, and in sweet potatoes β-carotene ranged from 204.3 to 210.3 µg/g DW. The results showed that the contribution to the recommended daily allowance is greater when these vegetables are prepared as a curry with coconut milk. The percentage contribution to recommended daily allowance from each vegetable cooked with coconut milk was 46.7, 21.8, 1.2 and 10.8 for carrots, pumpkins, squashes and sweet potatoes, respectively.