Vegetables contain yellow pigments called carotenes which are converted to vitamin A in the
human body. Carotenes are accordingly called as provitamin A. There are different types of carotenes,
namely α (alpha), β (beta) and γ (gamma). The rich sources of β-carotene are vegetables like spinach,
amaranth, coriander, drumstick, radish etc. (Gopalan et al., 1971). In the present investigation, β-carotene
content in the leaves of Amaranthus polygamous showed a decrease with increasing concentration of NaCl
in the growth medium (Table 1). Similarly Ayala-Astorga and Alcaraz-Melendez (2010) reported significant decrease in β-carotene content in Paulownia imperialis and P. fortunei plants grown under NaCl salinity