P- Carotene

P-Carotene is one of the more than 600 carotenoids that are produced by microorganisms and plants. P-Carotene, a lipid-soluble antioxidant, occurs naturally as a mixture of cis and trans isomers. Cis P-Carotene is a more effective antioxidant than trans p-carotene. 

P-Carotene has been shown to enhance the cytotoxicity of melphalan and BCNU on human squamous carcinoma cells and of cisplatin and dacarbazine on melanoma cells. In mice with transplanted mammary carcinoma, P-carotene enhanced the antitumor effect of cyclophosphamide, and in mice transplanted with Fsall fibrosarcoma or SCC VII carcinoma, p-carotene enhanced the antitumor effect of melphalan, BCNU, doxorubicin, and etoposide. p-Carotene (5 to 50 mg/kg) has been shown to reduce the genotoxicity of cyclophosphamide in mice and of mitomycin C, methyl methanesulfonate, and bleomycin in cultured cells. P-Carotene also reduced the rate of tumor induction in animals receiving chronic low doses of cyclophosphamide. 

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Okamoto H and Yoshihara K 1991 Femtosecond time-resolved coherent Raman scattering from p-carotene in solution. Ultrahigh frequency (11 THz) beating phenomenon and sub-picosecond vibrational relaxation Chem. Phys. Lett. 177 568-71... 

Carotenoids absorb visible light (Section 13 21) and dissipate its energy as heat thereby protecting the organism from any potentially harmful effects associated with sunlight induced photochemistry They are also indirectly involved m the chemistry of vision owing to the fact that p carotene is the biosynthetic precursor of vitamin A also known as retinol a key substance m the visual process... 

Solvent extraction removes chlorophyll and other pigments to give a light-colored product but increases processing costs. Furthermore, solvent extraction removes p-carotene and reduces vitamin A activity (89) (see Terpenoids Vitamins). Supercritical CO2 extraction at 30 and 70 MPa (4,350 and 10,150 psi) and 40°C removed 90 and 70% carotene and lutein, respectively, from alfalfa LPC (96). This process avoids organic solvent residues and recovers valuable by-products. 

An important function of certain carotenoids is their provitamin A activity. Vitamin A may be considered as having the stmcture of half of the P-carotene molecule with a molecule of water added at the end position. In general, all carotenoids containing a single unsubstituted P carotene half have provitamin A activity, but only about half the activity of P carotene. Provitamin A compounds are converted to Vitamin A by an oxidative enzyme system present in the intestinal mucosa of animals and humans. This conversion apparendy does not occur in plants (see Vitamins, VITAMIN a). 

P-Carotene is prescribed in the treatment of the inherited skin disorder erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) to reduce the severity of photosensitivity reactions in such patients. The essential theoretical background relevant to the role of carotenoids as photoconductors has been reviewed (211). P-Carotene has also been used as a photoconductor in recording-media film. 

Vitamin A constitutes the most significant sector of the commercial retinoid market and is used primarily in the feed area. In the pharmaceutical area, there are several important therapeutic dermatologic agents which stmcturaHy resemble vitamin A and they are depicted in Figure 2 (see Pharmaceuticals). The carotenoids as provitamin A compounds also represent an important commercial class of compounds with P-carotene [7235-40-7] (10) occupying the central role (Fig. 3) (9). 

Property Retinol Retinyl acetate Retinyl palmitate Retinyl propionate o p-carotene... 

In the BASF synthesis, a Wittig reaction between two moles of phosphonium salt (vitamin A intermediate (24)) and C q dialdehyde (48) is the important synthetic step (9,28,29). Thermal isomerization affords all /ra/ j -P-carotene (Fig. 11). In an alternative preparation by Roche, vitamin A process streams can be used and in this scheme, retinol is carefully oxidized to retinal, and a second portion is converted to the C2Q phosphonium salt (49). These two halves are united using standard Wittig chemistry (8) (Fig. 12). 

Other approaches to direct C2Q couplings have been reported (9,30—35). Based on their knowledge of sulfone chemistry, Rhc ne-Poulenc has patented many syntheses of P-carotene which use this olefination chemistry (36—41). Homer-Emmons chemistry has also been employed for this purpose (42). The synthetic approaches to the carotenoids have been reviewed (43). 

In nature, vitamin A aldehyde is produced by the oxidative cleavage of P-carotene by 15,15 - P-carotene dioxygenase. Alternatively, retinal is produced by oxidative cleavage of P-carotene to P-apo-S -carotenal followed by cleavage at the 15,15 -double bond to vitamin A aldehyde (47). Carotenoid biosynthesis and fermentation have been extensively studied both ia academic as well as ia iadustrial laboratories. On the commercial side, the focus of these iavestigations has been to iacrease fermentation titers by both classical and recombinant means. 

Animals cannot synthesize vitamin A-active compounds and necessary quantities are obtained by ingestion of vitamin A or by consumption of appropriate provitamin A compounds such as P-carotene. Carotenoids are manufactured exclusively by plants and photosynthetic bacteria. Until the discovery of vitamin A in the purple bacterium Halobacterium halobium in the 1970s, vitamin A was thought to be confined to only the animal kingdom (56). Table 4 Hsts RDA and U.S. RDA for vitamin A (67). 

Canthaxanthin. The newest of the synthetically produced carotenoid color additives, canthaxanthin [514-78-3] (39) (P-carotene-4-4 -dione), became commercially available about 1969 (60). Its Cl designation is Food Orange 8, Cl No. 40850. Its EEC designation is E 160g. 

Canthaxanthin crystallines from various solvents as brownish violet, shiny leaves that melt with decomposition at 210°C. As is the case with carotenoids in general, the crystals are sensitive to light and oxygen and, when heated in solution or exposed to ultraviolet light or iodine, form a mixture of cis and trans stereoisomers. Consequentiy, crystalline canthaxanthin should be stored under inert gas at low temperatures. Unlike the carotenoid colorants P-carotene and P-apo-8 -carotenal, canthaxanthin has no vitamin A activity. It is chemically stable at pH 2—8 (the range normally encountered in foods) and unaffected by heat in systems with a minimal oxygen content. 

The solubility of canthaxanthin in most solvents is low compared with P-carotene and P-apo-8 -carotenal. Oil solutions of canthaxanthin are red at all concentrations. Aqueous dispersions are orange or red depending on the type of emulsion prepared. 

O. Isler, R. Ruegg, and P. Schudel, Chimia 15, 208—226 (1961). Includes a discussion of P-carotene, P-apo-8 -carotenal, and canthaxanthin from the standpokit of preparation, toxicity, analysis, and appHcation. 

Astacin (P,P-carotene-3,3, 4,4 -tetraone) [514-76-1] M 592.8, m 228", 240-243"(evacuated tube), 550,000 at 498mm (pyridine). Probable impurity is astaxanthin. Purified by chromatography on alumina/fibrous clay (1 4) or sucrose, or by partition between pet ether and MeOH (alkaline). Crystd from pyridine/water. Stored in the dark under N2 at -20°. [Davis and Weedon J Chem Soc 182 I 960.]... 

Identify the isoprene units in p-carotene (see Figure 26.6). Which carbons are joined by a tail-to-tail link between isoprene units I... 

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