An Investigation of the Carotenoids of Carica papaya

Abstract

The carotenoids of yellow-fleshed papaw (Carica papaya), were collected at random from different areas of Kurunegala, a major papaw producing District in Sri Lanka. Results showed that the carotenoids present were phytofluene, scarotene, p-carotene, p-cryptoxanthin, p-cryptoxanthin 5,6-epoxide and an unknown mono epoxy-carotenoid. Carotenoid content varied markedly from sample to sample and the retinol activity equivalent (RAE) and retinol equivalent (RE) ranged from 25 - 156.7 100g'l fresh weight (FW) and 50 - 313.3 100·lg FW respectively. This is 2 to 16 fold, values reported for papaw previously. In-vitro bioaccessibility studies showed values 5.2±0.9Ilg.g'l FW for p-carotene and 6.9±1.l ug.g' fW for p-cryptoxanthin (50.5% and 45.7% extraction respectively).