Determination of β-carotene in five commonly used Ethiopian vegetables using UV-Vis spectrophotometric method

Meseret Kassaye, Mulu Hagos and Bhagwan Singh Chandravanshi

Abstract

In this study, the amount of β-carotene in five commonly used Ethiopian vegetables and their parts including the flesh, peel, and seeds of pumpkin and butternut squash, the flesh and peel of eggplant and zucchini, and the carrot was determined and compared using UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Using the UV-Vis technique, β-carotene was determined at 450 nm. β-Carotene content was found to be 632 µg/g in carrots, 17-445 µg/g and 70.9-188 µg/g in flesh, peel and seed parts of pumpkin and butternut squash, respectively. 70.4-437 µg/g and 33-344 µg/g found in flesh and peel parts of zucchini and eggplant, respectively. In this study content of β-carotene was obtained higher in the carrot followed by the peel parts of pumpkin, zucchini and eggplants. β-Carotene in the seed parts of pumpkin and butternut squash were determined and found lower than the peel and flesh parts. The significant variance in β-carotene content from different vegetables was noted in this study. This variance may depend on the type of vegetables as well as the parts of the vegetables. According to the study's findings, all the five types of vegetables (pumpkin, butternut squash, eggplant, zucchini, and carrot) are rich sources of β-carotene.