Carotenoids are the most important and the largest pigments in nature, but only the plants and microorganisms are able to produce them in the nature. These components, due to having suitable coloring property, relative stability and also antioxidant activity, have different uses in Food Industries. These components are the most important precursors of vitamin A in the body, which their presence in the consuming foods is necessary. One of the most important microorganisms which can produce carotenoids especially beta-carotene is the yeast named Rhodotorula. Most species of this yeast have the ability of producing carotenoids pigments in the considerable amounts. For isolaion of Rhodotorula, a number of foods and media were studied. At the end, it was isolated from decayed lime, then after microbial evaluations, it was identified as Rhodotorula muciligenous (rubra). In continuing, the amount of carotenoids especially beta- arotene which were obtained from the indigenous species was compared with other species purchased from collection centers in U.S. and China. The results indicated that produced beta-carotene on dry weight biomass in the yeasts, Rh. glutinis (C499) and Rh. muciliginous  indigenous spp.) were 447 and 285 micg /g respectively.        

BACKGROUND: Thalassemia is the most common hereditary disease in the world. Thalassemic erythrocytes are exposed to higher oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of beta-carotene and vitamin E on erythrocytes lipid peroxidation in beta - thalassemia patients. METHODS: A prospective double-blind, placebo - controlled study of the effect of beta-carotene and vitamin E on lipid peroxidation in erythrocytes membranes was performed on 120 beta-thalassemia major patients in four groups. The patients were supplemented for 4 weeks as follows: group 1 with beta-carotene (13 mg/day), group 2 with vitamin E (550 mg/day), group 3 with beta-carotene plus vitamin E and group 4 with placebo. We prepared all capsules for 4 groups in the same shape and color. Measurements of serum beta-carotene and vitamin E were performed by high performance liquid chromatography. After preparation of ghost cells from blood specimens, malondialdehyde (MDA) was determined as index of lipid peroxidation in erythrocytes membranes before and after treatment. RESULTS: The levels of serum beta-carotene and vitamin E were significantly lower and MDA concentrations in erythrocytes membranes were significantly higher in beta - thalassemia patients compared to controls (P<0.001). In groups that treated with vitamin supplements for 4-weeks, lipid peroxidation rates were significantly reduced after treatment (P<0.001), but in placebo group there was not significant difference (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide evidence that an oral treatment with beta-carotene and vitamin E can significantly reduce lipid peroxidation of erythrocytes membranes and could be useful in management of beta-thalassemia major patients.

Derivative spectrophotometry offers a useful approach for the analysis of drugs in multi-component mixtures. In this study a third-derivative spectrophotometry method was used for simultaneous determination of anthocyanoside and beta-carotene using the zero-crossing technique. The measurements were carried out at wavelengths of 625 and 540 nm for anthocyanoside and beta-carotene respectively.The method was found to be linear (r2>0.999) in the range of 125-750 µg/mL for anthocyanoside in the presence of 25 µg/mL beta-carotene at 625 nm. The same linear correlation was also obtained (r2>0.997) in the range of 6.25-37.50 µg/mL for beta-carotene in the presence of 500 µg/mL of anthocyanoside at 540 nm. The limit of determination was 125 and 6.25 µg/mL for anthocyanoside and beta-carotene respectively. The method was successfully applied for simultaneous determination of anthocyanoside and beta-carotene in pharmaceutical preparations without any interferences from excipients.

Background and Objectives: Lycopene and b-carotene, two strong antioxidant carotenoids, enter our bodies mostly through vegetables and fruits. Determination of the serum carotenoid levels may be used both to assess body antioxidant status and to validate vegetable and fruit consumption questionnaires. The aim of this study was to design and setup a rather simple, reliable and less expensive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based method for simultaneous determination of serum lycopene and b-carotene levels.Materials and Methods: After examining various chromatographic conditions, the following method was found to be most reliable. After protein precipitation with ethanol, the carotenoids were extracted using n-hexane, which was then evaporated under nitrogen flow at 40°C. The sediment was reconstituted with a mixture of mobile phase (methanol: acetonitrile: tetrahydrofurane, 50:45:5, v/v/v) and diethyl ether (2:1, v/v), 20mL of which was injected to the column Novopack C18. Results: With a flow rate of 1.5mL/min at 472nm, retention times of lycopene and b-carotene were 5.1 and 8.6 minutes, respectively, and the run time was 11 minutes. The percent recoveries (mean±SD) of lycopene and beta-carotene were 95.5%±7.8 and 95.2±7.0, respectively, and their intra- and inter- measurement variations 1.6% and 5.75% and 3.0% and 3.5%, respectively Conclusions: Quality control tests indicated high sensitivity and precision of the method. The method is quite suitable for use in research and, particularly, in population studies, although it has, like any other method, its own limitations. Furher studies are needed in this area.

To meet the consumer's interests for natural remedies, food and pharmaceutical industries calls for a safe and green methods for food aims extraction. Besides, carrot juice industry, possess high potential for processing the less expensive by-products to extract high-value ingredients named carotenoids. The purpose of the present study was therefore to extract beta-carotene from carrot pomace using green solvent (distilled water containing 2% ethanol and 4% surfactant). Results showed that among the used solvents for one-cycle extraction, 1-propanol and ethanol without significant differences (P> 0. 05) were the most efficient with respectively 0. 56 and 0. 51 mg/g of CP beta-carotene content. Whiles, for four-cycle extraction the ethanol was the most capable (0. 92 mg/g of CP). In addition, the poor ability of 2% ethanol containing distilled water (0. 04 mg/g of CP) was significantly increased in the expense of enzyme hydrolysis via Endozym ® Pectofruit(61 U as pectinase activity). Moreover, the 4% of all of the surfactants (soy lecithin, span 20, tween 20 and tween 80) were significantly increased the extraction capability of the green solvent, wherein, the highest beta-carotene content was extracted with tween 80 (0. 29 mg/g of CP). As well, all surfactants showed synergistic effect with enzyme pretreatment resulting up to 62% efficiency for tween 80 compared to four-cycle extraction with ethanol. All in all, the composed of distilled water: ethanol: tween 80: span 20 (94: 2: 2: 2) led to a green extraction of beta-carotene from carrot pomace with 0. 84 mg/ g of CP beta-carotene content and 90% extraction yield.