2.6. Total carotenoid content
Carotenoid was extracted according to Lee et al. (2001), while the total carotenoid content (Scott, 2001) using B-carotene as a reference was calculated using the following formula:
where A is absorbance reading of the diluted sample, V1 is dilution factor, A1% is absorbance of a 1% solution (the extinction coefficient for -carotene; 2592 AU), and C1% is concentration of a 1% solution (10 mg/ml).