General description

Carotenoids are an important class of naturally occurring pigments found in fruits and vegetables. Among the carotenoids, β-carotene has the greatest provitamin A potential and functions to reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and macular degeneration. Low water solubility and poor chemical stability attributes to low absorption of β-carotene from food. β-carotene along with digestible lipids enriches its bio accessibility. Emulsions or nano emulsions encapsulates effectively delivers lipophilic β-carotene and increases its bioavailability.^[1] β-carotene has anti-oxidant potential and reduces noise induced hearing loss and progression of macular degeneration.^[4]

Application

β-carotene has been used:
• to generate nano emulsions to evaluate their bioavailability potential^[1]
• as a standard, for β-carotene evaluation in blood and skin samples using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC),^[2]
• as a dietary supplement of vitamin-A in young rats by HPLC^[3]
• as a dietary supplement in mice to reduce hearing loss and hair cell damage^[