An Overview of Carotenoids, Apocarotenoids, and Vitamin A in Agro‐Food, Nutrition, Health, and Disease

Abstract

Carotenoids are fascinating compounds that can be converted into many others, including retinoids that also play key roles in many processes. Although carotenoids are largely known in the context of food science, nutrition, and health as natural colorants and precursors of vitamin A (VA), evidence has accumulated that even those that cannot be converted to VA may be involved in health‐promoting biological actions. It is not surprising that carotenoids (most notably lutein) are among the bioactives for which the need to establish recommended dietary intakes have been recently discussed. In this review, the importance of carotenoids (including apocarotenoids) and key derivatives (retinoids with VA activity) in agro‐food with relevance to health is summarized. Furthermore, the European Network to Advance Carotenoid Research and Applications in Agro‐Food and Health (EUROCAROTEN) is introduced. EUROCAROTEN originated from the Ibero‐American Network for the Study of Carotenoids as Functional Food Ingredients (IBERCAROT).

Characterization of Andean Blueberry in Bioactive Compounds, Evaluation of Biological Properties and <em>in vitro</em> Bioaccessibility

“…The compounds 11 -16 belonged to the flavonol family, being all of them derivatives of quercetin, with the typical MS 2 fragment of m/z 301, and a loss of 162 mass units in case of glucose, 132 due to pentose and 146 because of the deoxyhexoside rhamnose. Other authors also found quercetin-3-glycosides as the predominant flavonols in this fruit [3], additionally, small amounts of two different myricetin derivatives were identified in mortiño berries [4].…”

Characterization of Andean Blueberry in Bioactive Compounds, Evaluation of Biological Properties, and In Vitro Bioaccessibility

“…Other authors also found quercetin-3-glycosides as the predominant flavonols in this fruit [ 3 ]. Additionally, small amounts of two different myricetin derivatives were identified in mortiño berries [ 4 ].…”

“…Unlike many other Ibero-American fruits and vegetables, the carotenoid profile of Andean blueberry is basically unknown [ 3 ]. The study of carotenoids is very important as they are very versatile compounds with many applications in agro-food and nutricosmetics [ 4 , 5 ]. As far as we know, only few works have published the profile and content of phenolic compounds in V. floribundum Kunth evaluated by HPLC–MS/MS [ 6 , 7 ].…”

New β-Carotene-Chitooligosaccharides Complexes for Food Fortification: Stability Study

“…Thus, it is obtained from the diet. β-Carotene is a precursor of vitamin A and has other biological activities that contribute to human health [1,2]. It exhibits high antioxidant activity [3].…”

“…First-order kinetics parameters for CAR-CHIOS complexes degradation under different conditions1,2,3 .Under the storage in the light at 24 • C…”