Bioavailability of carotenoids

Sources Adapted from Rodriguez-Amaya, D.B., Carotenoids and Food Preparation, USAID/OMNl, Washington, DC, 1997 Takyi, E.E.K., Bioavailability of Carotenoids from Vegetables, CRC Press, Boca Raton,... 

Bias, J., Perez-Rodriguez, L., Bortolotti, G. R., Vinuela, J., and Marchant, T. A. 2006. Testosterone increases bioavailability of carotenoids Insights into the honesty of sexual signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 103 18633-18637. 

Takyi EK. 2001. Bioavailability of carotenoids from vegetables versus supplements. In Watson RR, editor. Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs in Health Promotion. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press, pp. 19-34. 

Since the IU was based on studies that did not take into account the poor absorption and bioavailability of carotenoids in foods, the equivalency of retinol and /3-carotene in the IU system differs from that in the RE system. Thus in the RE system, 1 fig retinol = 6 fig /3-carotene, whereas in the IU system, 1 fig retinol = 2 fig /3-carotene. 

Blakely, S., Brown, E., Babu, U., Grundel, E., and Mitchell, G. 1994. Bioavailability of carotenoids in tomato paste and dried spinach and their interactions with canthaxanthin. FASEB J. 8, 192. 

Parker RS, Swanson IE, You CS, Edwards AJ, and Huang T (1999) Bioavailability of carotenoids in human subjects. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 58, 155-62. 

In processed food, the maceration reduces the particle size and removes some barriers, increases the contact superficies for interaction with digestive. Effectors, such as the presence of oil, can also have an influence on the bioaccessibUity and/or bioavailability of carotenoids these compounds are lipophilic molecules, and they have to be incorporated in mixed micelles in the duodenum before they can be absorbed in the mucosa [31]. Certain structural differences may alter fat solubility and modify the efficiency of the micellization. One of them is the esterification of xanthophyll with fatty acids. Esterified xanthophylls exhibit increased fat solubility relative to their corresponding free xanthophylls and even against carotenes. 

Van het Hof, K.H. et al., Dietary factors that affect the bioavailability of carotenoids,... 

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