| Abstrakt: |
Bread is a staple food that provides essential nutrients to millions of people worldwide, hence its fortification with provitamin A carotenoids can help combat vitamin A deficiencies effectively. This study investigates fortified bread made with Cucurbita maxima Duch. fruits using a straight-dough procedure, focusing on changes caused by thermal processing to carotenoids. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode-array detection was used for the sensitive and selective analysis of carotenoids. HPLC showed that lutein, cucurbitaxanthin A, and β-carotene are the major carotenoids in fortified bread, highlighting lutein and cucurbitaxanthin A as the most stable carotenoids during thermal processing. Fortified bread is a functional food that can not only combat vitamin A deficiency and prevent age-related macular degeneration, but also has antioxidant properties with related health effects, offering new market opportunities for producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
