Carotenoid content and in vitro bioaccessibility of lycopene from guava (Psidium guajava) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) by high-performance liquid chromatography diode array detection

Abstract

The carotenoid content and in vitro accessibility of the ‘Sugar baby’ variety of watermelon and the ‘Horana red’ variety of guava from Sri Lanka was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. The high-performance liquid chromatography chromatogram showed that the Guava ‘Horana red’ variety contained almost exclusively lycopene (45.3 ± 8.0 μg/g fresh weight (FW)), with a small amount of lutein (2.1 ± 0.6 μg/g FW), β-carotene (2.0 ± 0.2 μg/g FW) and β-cryptoxanthin. As far as carotenoids in the sugar baby variety of watermelon are concerned, it contained lycopene, lutein and β-carotene of 37.2 ± 4.0 μg/g FW, 2.1 ± 0.6 μg/g FW and 0.3 ± 1 μg/g FW, respectively. The studies showed that guava contains more lycopene (45.3±8.0 μg/g FW) than watermelon (37.2 ± 4.0 μg/g FW), and that the in vitro accessibility of lycopene in guava (73%) is more than that in watermelon (25.8%). Therefore it can be concluded that guava can be used as a better lycopene source than watermelon.

Keywords::

• Lycopene
• carotenoids
• in vitro bioaccessibility
• Psidium guajava
• Citrullus lanatus

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the International Foundation for Science, Stockholm, Sweden and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), THE HAGUE, Netherlands, through a grant to Dr. U.G. Chandrika. (Research grant No: E/3655-1) and National Research Council Grant 2005: No. 05-36.