A Rapid Spectrophotometric Method to Determine ! -Carotene Content in Cucumis melo germplasm

carotene is a carotenoid that has anti- oxidant properties, is a precursor of Vitamin A, and im- parts the orange color in some fruits and vegetables. This compound is the major carotenoid in cantaloupe. Be- cause of its health benefits, the ! -carotene content in fruits is of interest to the food industry and to melon breeders. Current methods to assay ! -carotene content in fruit are time consuming, expensive, and use hazard- ous organic solvents. In this report, preliminary data is shown for a method to quantify ! -carotene content of cantaloupe puree using light absorbance measured with a xenon flash colorimeter/spectrophotometer. Absor- bance of twenty seven cantaloupe purees from one vari- ety demonstrated a linear correlation coefficient (R 2 =0.7) with ! -carotene content determined by hexane extrac- tion/spectrophotometry. This linear correlation shows that this method may be suitable for quantifying ! -caro- tene content in purees of fresh cantaloupe. Since puree- ing the sample is the only processing required and no chemicals are needed, the method is rapid, inexpensive and produces no hazardous waste. Materials and Methods: Sample Preparation. All