Original Articles
L. Guzmán, R.
Abstract
In recent years, it has been a global trend toward the use of natural-plant food components, such as d ietary fibers and phytochemicals like carotenoids. Carotenoids ar e molecules widely distributed in nature, with over six hundred of known carotenoids molecules classified in two cl asses, xanthophylls and carotenes. The first analys is of many carotenoids was determined in a qualitative form by thin-layer chromatography, but this technique need s a previous separation, nowadays, there are many powerful analy tical tools for qualitative and quantitative analys is of these metabolites. This article shows the analytical char acteristics of the mass spectrometry for the identi fication of molecules (small and large) in situ of high perform ance analyses. Also are discussed the use of chroma tography such as gas chromatography (GC) and High-performanc e liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a versatile metho d of carotenoid analysis.