Separation and quantification of carotenoids and chlorophylls in vegetables by high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

Carotenoids such as β-carotene, a predominant vitamin A precursor, and lutein and chlorophylls in vegetables have been reported to have antioxidative activity and desmutagenicity. In this paper, we developed a simple and rapid method to measure the carotenoids and the chlorophylls in vegetables. We adopted a simple extraction method with acetone without solvent transfer or evaporation for the extraction of them from raw vegetables. When water was added to freeze-dried vegetables before homogenization, pigments were extracted with high yield. β- and α-Carotenes, lutein and chlorophylls-a and -b were separated by HPLC on an ODS reversed-phase column, using linear gradient elution of ethyl acetate and acetonitrile-water (9:1). The contents of them were not reduced when extracts were stored at -20°C for two weeks.