carotenoids
Synonyms
Examples
A primary vitamin A deficiency occurs among children and adults who do not consume an adequate intake of provitamin A carotenoids from fruits and vegetables or preformed vitamin A from animal and dairy products.
For many years, a system of equivalencies in which an international unit (IU) was equal to 0.3 μg of retinol, 0.6 μg of β-carotene, or 1.2 μg of other provitamin-A carotenoids was used.
Hydrolysis of retinyl esters results in retinol, while provitamin A carotenoids can be cleaved to produce retinal by carotene dioxygenase in the intestinal mucosa.
Omnivorous animal species which are relatively poor converters of coloured dietary carotenoids to colourless retinoids have yellowed-coloured body fat, as a result of the carotenoid retention from the vegetable portion of their diet.
Little is known about the liver metabolism of lycopene, but like other carotenoids, lycopene is incorporated into chylomicrons and released into the lymphatic system.
Animal species differ greatly in their ability to convert retinyl (beta- ionone ) containing carotenoids to retinals.