ethanol (12.5 mL) and once with hexane (12.5 mL). The combined extracts were washed with deionised water, dried in a rotary evaporator at 35°C and then diluted with the mobile phase solution. All operations were performed under subdued light to minimise oxidation of the carotenoids.
The HPLC analysis was performed with an Agilent 1,200 HPLC (Santa Clara, CA, USA) equipped with a diode array detector system and consisting of a Luna C18 (100 x 4.6 mm i. d.; 5 μm) direct-connect guard reverse phase column directly coupled to a Jupiter C18 (250 x 4.6 mm i.d.; 5 μm) reverse phase column (Phenomenex Australia Pty. Ltd., Lane Cove, NSW, Australia). The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile, dichloromethane and methanol (ACN: DCM: MeOH) 50: 40: 10 v/v/v. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min, detection was at 450 nm and the injection volume was 20 μL. The identification of β-carotene and lycopene was based solely on the retention time of the peaks compared with the authentic standards. The content of carotenoids in
the fresh and dried powder samples were expressed as μg/g aril (dry basis, d.b.).