Carotenoid content and in vitro bioaccessibility of lycopene from guava (Psidium guajava) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) by high-performance liquid chromatography diode array detection. International journal of food sciences and nutrition [Int J Food Sci Nutr] Journal article

The carotenoid content and in vitro accessibility of the 'Sugar baby' variety of watermelon and the 'Horana red' variety of guava from Sri Lanka was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. The high-performance liquid chromatography chromatogram showed that the Guava 'Horana red' variety contained almost exclusively lycopene (45.3 +/- 8.0 mug/g fresh weight (FW)), with a small amount of lutein (2.1 +/- 0.6 mug/g FW), beta-carotene (2.0 +/- 0.2 mug/g FW) and beta-cryptoxanthin. As far as carotenoids in the sugar baby variety of watermelon are concerned, it contained lycopene, lutein and beta-carotene of 37.2 +/- 4.0 mug/g FW, 2.1 +/- 0.6 mug/g FW and 0.3 +/- 1 mug/g FW, respectively. The studies showed that guava contains more lycopene (45.3+/-8.0 mug/g FW) than watermelon (37.2 +/- 4.0 mug/g FW), and that the in vitro accessibility of lycopene in guava (73%) is more than that in watermelon (25.8%). Therefore it can be concluded that guava can be used as a better lycopene source than watermelon.

International journal of food sciences and nutrition [Int J Food Sci Nutr]