Carotenoid losses during the treatments by microwave (65–
70 min) and steaming (20–30 min) were similar. Compared with
b-carotene, the lycopene degradation was found to be higher as
indicated by the greater slope of the lines in Figs. 2 and 3. This
may be due to differences in the chemical structure of carotenoids
and their relations to the chemical reactivity (Britton, 1995).