CAROTENOIDS CONTENT OF COMMERCIAL SEAWEED IN BALI

In Bali there are several types of seaweed that has long been used as a source of food by people. These seaweed local name are Bulung Boni (Caulerpa spp.) and Bulung Sangu (Gracilaria spp.). However the study of total carotenoids content and types of carotenoids of these seaweed are very limited, therefore need to be further sudy. The types of carotenoids in this study identified based on the retention of value (Rf) on thin layer chromatography. This research concluded that total carotenoids of Bulung Boni (Caulerpa spp.) higher than Bulung Sangu (Gracilaria spp.). Total carotenoids were 57.734 mg / 100 g in Bulung Boni, and 1.776 mg /100 g in Bulung Sangu. The separation of carotenoids Bulung Boni and Bulung Sangu on thin layer chromatography obtained several types of carotenoids. Based on the calculation Rf values on Bulung Boni found as many as nine types of carotenoids such as neoxanthin, astaxanthin free, antheraxanthin ,canthaxanthin ,astaxanthin monoester, fucoxanthin, chlorophyll b, astaxanthin diester, and beta carotene In Bulung Sangu found eight types of carotenoids, such as neoxanthin, violaxanthin, astaxanthin free, antheraxanthin, lutein, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll a, and beta caroten

Understanding/unravelling carotenoid excited singlet states.

Carotenoids are essential light-harvesting pigments in natural photosynthesis. They absorb in the blue–green region of the solar spectrum and transfer the absorbed energy to (bacterio-)chlorophylls, and thus expand the wavelength range of light that is able to drive photosynthesis. This process is an example of singlet–singlet excitation energy transfer, and carotenoids serve to enhance the overall efficiency of photosynthetic light reactions. The photochemistry and photophysics of carotenoids have often been interpreted by referring to those of simple polyene molecules that do not possess any functional groups. However, this may not always be wise because carotenoids usually have a number of functional groups that induce the variety of photochemical behaviours in them. These differences can also make the interpretation of the singlet excited states of carotenoids very complicated. In this article, we review the properties of the singlet excited states of carotenoids with the aim of producing as coherent a picture as possible of what is currently known and what needs to be learned

Structures and functions of carotenoids bound to reaction centers from purple photosynthetic bacteria

The photoprotective function of 15,15'-cis-carotenoids bound to the photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs) of purple bacteria has been studied using carotenoids reconstituted into carotenoidless RCs from Rhodobacter sphaeroides strain R26.1. The triplet-energy level of the carotenoid has been proposed to affect the quenching of the triplet state of special-pair bacteriochlorophyll (P). This was investigated using microsecond flash photolysis to detect the carotenoid triplets as a function of the number of conjugated double bonds, n. The carotenoid triplet signals were extracted by using singular-value decomposition (SVD) of the huge matrices data, and were confirmed for those having n = 8 to 11. This interpretation assumes that the reconstituted carotenoids occupy the same binding site in the RC. We have been able to confirm this assumption using X-ray crystallography to determine the structures of carotenoidless, wild-type carotenoid-containing, and 3,4-dihydro-spheroidene-reconstituted RCs. The X-ray study also emphasized the importance of the methoxy group of the carotenoids for binding to the RCs. Electroabsorption (Stark) spectroscopy was used to investigate the effect of the carotenoid on the electrostatic field around P. This electrostatic field changed by 10 % in the presence of the carotenoid

A foundation for provitamin A biofortification of maize: genome-wide association and genomic prediction models of carotenoid levels.

Efforts are underway for development of crops with improved levels of provitamin A carotenoids to help combat dietary vitamin A deficiency. As a global staple crop with considerable variation in kernel carotenoid composition, maize (Zea mays L.) could have a widespread impact. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of quantified seed carotenoids across a panel of maize inbreds ranging from light yellow to dark orange in grain color to identify some of the key genes controlling maize grain carotenoid composition. Significant associations at the genome-wide level were detected within the coding regions of zep1 and lut1, carotenoid biosynthetic genes not previously shown to impact grain carotenoid composition in association studies, as well as within previously associated lcyE and crtRB1 genes. We leveraged existing biochemical and genomic information to identify 58 a priori candidate genes relevant to the biosynthesis and retention of carotenoids in maize to test in a pathway-level analysis. This revealed dxs2 and lut5, genes not previously associated with kernel carotenoids. In genomic prediction models, use of markers that targeted a small set of quantitative trait loci associated with carotenoid levels in prior linkage studies were as effective as genome-wide markers for predicting carotenoid traits. Based on GWAS, pathway-level analysis, and genomic prediction studies, we outline a flexible strategy involving use of a small number of genes that can be selected for rapid conversion of elite white grain germplasm, with minimal amounts of carotenoids, to orange grain versions containing high levels of provitamin A

Carotenoids and antioxidant enzymes as biomarkers of the impact of heavy metals in food chain

Antioxidant enzymes (catalase and peroxidase) and carotenoids (lutein and â-carotene) are often used as biomarkers of metal contamination of water and agricultural soils. In this study, the effects of heavy metals present in irrigation water on the aforementioned carotenoids of potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) and carrots (Daucus carota L.), cultivated in a greenhouse and irrigated with a water solution including different levels of Cr(VI) and Ni(II) were investigated. These results were compared to the levels of the same metabolites that had been assessed in market-available potato and carrot samples. The findings indicated that the levels of the examined metabolites on the treated with Cr and Ni samples, resemble the levels of the same parameters in the market samples, originating from polluted areas. Therefore, the antioxidant enzymes, catalase and peroxidase, and the carotenoids, lutein and â-carotene, could be handled as indicators of heavy metal pollution