The method of Desobry, Netto, and Labuza (1997) with a slight
modificationwas used to analyze total b-carotene. Fifty mg powder
was weighed into a 125 mL-flask, dispersed in water (1.5 mL) and
ethanol (1 mL) and extracted with hexane (25 mL). After shaking
(500 rpm) for 30 min at room temperature, the hexane fractionwas
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.