15B-6 |
Characterization of carotenoid pigments and color in juice of red fleshed navel orange |
H. S. LEE, Citrus Research & Education Center, Florida Dept. of Citrus, 700 Experiment Station Rd., Lake Alfred, FL 33850 The importance of carotenoids on juice color and the growing interest in health benefits of carotenoids have stimulated efforts to study the carotenoids in red navels, which have been recently introduced in the market. The red navel orange is attractive due to its near crimson flesh similar to the red grapefruit. This appealing fruit is also valuable for its juice to blend with that of other sweet orange cultivars that have pale color. The study is aimed at characterization of carotenoid pigments and the color of the red fleshed navel orange, and ascertaining whether there are significant differences in carotenoid contents compared to standard navel oranges grown in Florida. High-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection was applied for the separation and characterization of carotenoids from a red fleshed navel orange. More than twenty-nine carotenoid pigments were separated within 60 min using a ternary gradient elution on a C30 reversed-phase column. The red coloration in red navel orange is due to carotenoid pigments rather than anthocyanins which are responsible for the characteristics in blood orange cultivars. The juice color in red navel was much deeper orange than that from navel orange; hue angle ranged from 84.1 to 89.4 for red navel compared to 98.2 to 100.5 for standard navel. The presence of lycopene as well as a relatively large percentage of beta-carotene in red navel orange juice were distinct differences in the pigment profile compared to the standard navel orange juice. The presence of lycopene in sweet orange is not common, but is of special interest because recent nutritional and epidemiological studies have probed the importance of lycopene in preventing certain cancers.
Session 15B, Citrus
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