BACKGROUND Orange-fleshed sweet potato is an efficacious source of vitamin A. Substituting wheat flour with orange-fleshed sweet potato in processed products could reduce foreign exchange outlays, create new markets for producers, and result in increased vitamin A consumption among consumers provided there is adequate retention of beta-carotene during processing. OBJECTIVE To explore whether ...

BACKGROUND Evidence indicates that different types of fat have different effects on the postprandial plasma triacylglycerol response. Therefore, the type of fat may influence the appearance of beta-carotene in postprandial triacylglycerol-rich lipoproteins, which is used as an indicator of intestinal beta-carotene absorption. OBJECTIVE We compared in female subjects the appearance of beta-car...

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a chronic, insidious and disabling condition affecting the oral cavity, being especially prevalent in India and South East Asia. However, considering its high prevalence and potential to undergo malignant transformation, OSMF has not been widely investigated with respect to levels of antioxidants, especially beta carotene. In the present study, an attempt was m...

Recent studies have suggested that betacarotene supplements can increase the risk of lung cancer among current, long-term smokers. However, these studies may have been conceived and executed on a number of faulty assumptions. There was no evidence to suggest that beta-carotene would protect specifically against lung cancer, particularly in high-risk populations. There are significant isomeric a...

The endosperm of Golden Rice (Oryza sativa) is yellow due to the accumulation of beta-carotene (provitamin A) and xanthophylls. The product of the two carotenoid biosynthesis transgenes used in Golden Rice, phytoene synthase (PSY) and the bacterial carotene desaturase (CRTI), is lycopene, which has a red color. The absence of lycopene in Golden Rice shows that the pathway proceeds beyond the tr...

Dr. James Allen Olson helped us to define the role of beta-carotene in human health by categorizing these as “functions, actions and associations.” In the last decade, significant research has shown that betacarotene acts as an antioxidant in biologically relevant systems, affects several aspects of human immune function and higher intake/serum levels are associated with improvements in certain...

Beta carotene and lycopene, the two principal colored carotenoids present in tomato fruit, were measured in mature fruit of parental, F,, F2, and backcross populations derived from an initial cross of an orange-fruited accession of the wild tomato species Lycopersicon cheesmann Riley with the cultivated tomato L esculentum Mill. Segregation patterns for fruit pigmentation and percentage beta ca...

Accumulation of beta-carotene during postharvest ripening of nine Thai mango cultivars was assessed after verifying extraction and high-performance liquid chromatographic quantification of the beta-carotene stereoisomers for this sample matrix. No relevant trans-cis isomerization was induced by the analytical procedure. The vitamin A potential of mangoes was evaluated at different ripening stag...

This study investigated whether a high dietary intake or serum concentration of antioxidant (pro-) vitamins could attenuate the acute respiratory effects of air pollution in panels of adults (n = 227) aged 50-70 yrs with chronic respiratory symptoms in two winters starting in 1993/1994. Subjects performed daily peak expiratory flow (PEF) measurements in the morning and evening and reported the ...

Serum concentrations of retinol, alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene and lycopene were measured by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (r-P HPLC) in 260 randomly selected healthy adult Kuwaitis (159 men and 101 women) aged 18-63 years (mean 33.3 years) to established reference ranges of the micronutrient antioxidants. Total cholesterol concentrations were assayed by an enzymatic m...