Quantification of Provitamin A Compounds in ChInese Vegetables by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

The provitamin A contents of 16 vegetables grown in Taiwan were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode-array detection. The amounts of the major provitamin A compounds, (β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, and β-carotene ranged from 0-6.8, 0-27.7, and 0.6-104.9 (μg/g, respectively. The highest β-carotene content was found in basil, followed by onion fragrant, kale, carrot, spinach, water convolvulus, mustard, green onion, garland chrysanthemum, sweet potato, green pepper, yellow com, mustard stem, lettuce, cabbage, and celeriac. Carrot was the only vegetable found to contain α-carotene while com was the vegetable to contain (β-cryptoxanthin.