No abstract

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is one of the continuous leading causes of children and pregnant women death. To overcome this malnutrition which currently affected one-third of the world population, there is always renewed interest in exploring numerous dietary sources rich in carotenoids which some of them serve as precursors to vitamin A (provitamin A). It is important that affordable staple foods be as nutritious as possible because poverty limits food access for much of the developing world's population. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore various dietary sources for carotenoids in 28 ulam and medicinal species which are commonly consumed by the local folks. Carotenoid extraction using organic solvents was performed and analysis employed in this study through High Performance Liquid Chromatography revealed seven types of carotenoids in the food matrices; neoxanthin, violaxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene and β-carotene. Interestingly, these carotenoids profiles were found in varying concentration and composition in different species as well as in different period or season. Total carotenoids content quantified in all of the samples lies between 1.315 ± 0.007 to 190.301 ± 3.427 µg/g DW where cekur manis has the highest content. The total vitamin A activity (in terms of retinol equivalent, RE) of every species is also included in this study. The results suggested that at least 20 of the ulam and medicinal species may be used as alternative food intervention to eliminate VAD as a public health concern.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of individual carotenoids content and composition are complicated, time consuming and in fact very costly. The crucial and vital part is the availability and reliability of the pure standards. Most of the individual carotenoids are commercially available either in natural or synthetic form but they are quite expensive and some of it not available in the market anymore. These problems strongly associated with the accuracy and reliability of High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis data. Therefore, this study aimed to set up an analytical scheme of obtaining β-carotene standard from the leaves of Morinda citrifolia as one of the carotenoid standards for HPLC analysis. M. citrifolia has been selected due to its abundance throughout the year with tropical climate. The scheme via open column chromatography (OCC) established that the purity of β-carotene standard was 97% and the coefficient of correlation was 0.9923. However after 30 day storage period of time, the purity decreased to 95.46%. Although these had an effect on the carotenoid standard stability but it can be a reliable source of β-carotene standard for HPLC analysis as well as active pharmaceutical ingredient for cosmeceutical, nutraceutical, food and beverage industries.