Microgreens are gaining increasing interest as a potential functional food due to their relevant contents of micronutrients and bioactive compounds, including carotenoids. Nevertheless, the analysis of carotenoids is inherently difficult, due to their thermal and chemical susceptibility, as well as to their varying polarity. From this point of view, extraction is the most critical step, compared to chromatographic separation and detection. Thus, the reliability of data on carotenoids should be guaranteed by a constant focus on analytical issues, with appropriate adaptations to each sample matrix. In this research, a specific extraction procedure for the analysis of carotenoids in microgreens was developed. Solvent composition, extraction time, solvent/sample ratio, and repeated extractions were evaluated. The obtained protocol showed recovery of 97.2%, limits of quantitation of 5.2 μg·g-1 for lutein and 15.9 μg·g-1 for β-carotene, as well as intra-day mean repeatability of 5.7% and inter-day mean repeatability of 4.7%.
Keywords: antioxidants; bioactive compounds; carotenoids; extraction; lettuce; linen; microgreens.