Determination of plasma levels of β-carotene in Pakistani Population by a simple HPLC method

Most of the methods for determination of vitamins are simultaneous for two or more vitamins,but there is need to develop a simple method for ß-carotene when it is to be determined individually. the status of ß carotene is important to determine because low serum ß carotene level is found to have a greater risk of different types of diseases and needs to be determined in order to measure the consequences of the diseases. the present study was done to investigate ß-carotene level in the local pakistani population. the blood samples were taken in fasting. total of hundred investigates including 50 males and 50 females were selected for this study. all investigates were adults (above 18),on a normal diet and nobody has taken any antioxidant supplementation. ß-carotene was found to be 0.61±0.07 μg/ml in serum of total investigates while concentration of male (0.56±0.04 μg/ml) was less than that of females (0.66±0.06 μg/ml). the method used was simple and efficient in sense of sample preparation and mobile phase composition resulting in shorter retention time,sharp peak and clearer results with a lower limit of detection 2.5μg per ml rather than dl. the chromatographic mode used for antioxidant vitamin ß-carotene was isocratic and flow rate was 1ml/min while run time and wavelengths for detection of ß-carotene was 7.5 minute and 455 nm respectively.