Provitamin A content of selected South Indian foods by high performance liquid chromatography.
Usha Chandrasekhar, Kowsalya S.
Author Affiliation: Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Deemed University, Coimbatore - 641 043, India.
Journal of Food Science and Technology (Mysore) 39 : 183-187
Abstract : Ten green leafy vegetables, five other vegetables, five fruits in raw form and cooked greens were analysed for their total carotene contents by spectrophotometry and beta carotene/provitamin A content by HPLC. Selected foods were also evaluated for absorption of carotenes in humans. Dark green leafy vegetables were found to be the richest source of provitamin A. Drumstick leaves showed a maximum total - (41.98 mcg%) and beta-carotene - (28.16 mcg%) contents respectively. Among the vegetables and fruits studied, carrots and mangoes showed maximum carotene contents. Further, 81% of total carotenes in fenugreek leaves was beta carotene while in carrots, 87.8% was beta carotene and in mangoes 73.8% was beta carotene. Vitamin A activities of vegetables and fruits were found to be lower than leafy vegetables. The loss of beta carotene in cooked greens was in the range of 2.5 to 42.5% and beta carotene absorption was maximum in papaya (88.7%).