Carotenoids
b-Carotene and lycopene were determined according to the
method of Nagata and Yamashita (1992). A fine dried powder
(150 mg) was vigorously shaken with 10 ml of acetone–hexane
mixture (4:6) for 1 min and filtered through Whatman No. 4 filter
paper. The absorbance of the filtrate was measured at 453, 505,
645 and 663 nm. Contents of b-carotene and lycopene were
calculated according to the following equations: lycopene (mg/
100 ml)= 0.0458 A663 + 0.204 A645 + 0.372 A505 0.0806
A453; b-carotene (mg/100 ml) = 0.216 A663 – 1.220 A645 0.304 A505 + 0.452 A453. The results were expressed as lg of
carotenoid/g of dry weight.