After shaking (500 rpm) for 30 min at room temperature, the hexane fraction was collected, adjusted to 25 mL and absorbance read at 454 nm using a UVeVis spectrophotometer (Beckman Coulter DU-800, Fullerton, CA).
The concentration of carotenoid was evaluated with respect to the initial concentration as C/Co, where C is the carotenoid concentration at a given time and Co is the initial concentration.