Phytoene and phytofluene are major abundant dietary carotenoids largely ignored in the context of agro-food and health. The bioaccessibility of phytoene and phytofluene in tomato, carrot, blood orange (sanguinello cultivar), and apricot juices was analysed following simulated gastro-intestinal digestion with coffee cream as a lipid source, and compared with that of other main carotenoids from these matrices. The bioaccessibility of phytoene and phytofluene, and also total carotenoid bioaccessibility, followed the order: sanguinello>apricot>tomato>carrot. Phytoene was consistently the carotenoid with the highest bioaccessibility, up to 97%, generally followed by phytofluene. The higher bioaccessibility of these carotenoids could mainly be due to their marked difference in chemical structure and matrix distribution. For most juices, cis-isomers presented a higher bioaccessibility than their all-trans counterparts (P<0.05). The dietary source that provided highest amounts of potentially absorbable phytoene/phytofluene was by far tomato juice (5mg/250mL juice).
Keywords: Bioavailability; Colourless carotenoids; Digestion; Food matrix; Geometrical (cis/trans) isomers; Lycopene (PubChem CID: 446925); Phytoene (PubChem CID: 5280784); Phytofluene (PubChem CID: 6436722); α-Carotene (PubChem CID: 4369188); β-Carotene (PubChem CID: 5280489); β-Cryptoxanthin (PubChem CID: 5281235).
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