Vitamin A deficiency is one of the most prevalent deficiency disorders in the world. As shown by many studies plant food based approaches have a real potential on prevention of vitamin A deficiency in a sustainable way. Carotenoids are important as precursors of vitamin A as well as for prevention of cancers, coronary heart diseases, age-related macular degeneration, cataract etc. Bioaccessibility and bioefficacy of carotenoids are known to be influenced by numerous factors including dietary factors such as fat, fiber, dosage of carotenoid, location of carotenoid in the plant tissue, heat treatment, particle size of food, carotenoid species, interactions among carotenoids, isomeric form and molecular linkage and subject characteristics. Therefore even when carotenoids are found in high quantities in plant foods their utilization may be unsatisfactory because some factors are known to interfere as negative effectors.

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Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in Sri Lanka, which affects especially pre-school children. Carrots (Daucus carota), pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima), squashes (Cucurbita moschata) and sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) of orange, yellow-fleshed varieties are good sources of provitamin A carotenoids, but have not been studied in Sri Lanka in terms of the food as eaten. The content of carotenoids in each preparation method and the in-vitro accessibility of beta-carotene and alpha-carotene were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The in-vitro method simulates the conditions in the human intestinal tract. The mean contents in dry weight (DW) in different carrot preparations ranged from 406.7 to 456.3, from 183.7 to 213.5 and from 29.0 to 39.6 microg/g for beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and lutein, respectively. The content of carotenoids in different pumpkin preparations varied from 282.1 to 294.4 microg/g DW for beta-carotene, from 155.6 to 157.7 microg/g DW for alpha-carotene and from 218.0 to 228.2 microg/g DW for lutein. The squashes preparation had 44.6 and 40.0 microg/g DW for beta-carotene and alpha-carotene, respectively, and in sweet potatoes beta-carotene ranged from 204.3 to 210.3 microg/g DW. The results showed that the contribution to the recommended daily allowance is greater when these vegetables are prepared as a curry with coconut milk. The percentage contribution to recommended daily allowance from each vegetable cooked with coconut milk was 46.7, 21.8, 1.2 and 10.8 for carrots, pumpkins, squashes and sweet potatoes, respectively.

The yellow fruit lavalu found in Sri Lanka has been confirmed by taxonomical studies as Pouteria campechiana (Sinhala: Ratalawulu). This is the only yellow lavalu found in Sri Lanka and is not of the Chrysophyllum species. The leaf, fruit and seed characteristics were studied and compared with herbarium specimens at the National Herbarium. The carotenoids were dominated by neoxanthin. Total carotenoid content was high and varied from 1.9 to 23.5 mg.g-1 dry weight (DW). Individual carotenoid concentrations varied markedly from specimen to specimen (β-carotene, from traces to 156, ζ-carotene, trace amounts, β-cryptoxanthin, from traces to 1106, violaxanthin, from less than 188 to 1151, neoxanthin, from 1594 to 19,270, unidentified I, from traces to 627, unidentified II, from 68 to 1162, μg.g-1 DW). Due to the presence of a carbohydrate gum the normal extraction procedure for carotenoids had to be modified. Identification was done after separating by open column chromatography (OCC) by using visible spectral data, chemical tests, thin layer chromatography (TLC) as well as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Quantification was mainly carried out by HPLC using β-apo-8'-carotenal as the internal standard. Results showed two extremes of retinol equivalents (RE) in Pouteria campechiana (traces and 759 to 11,813 RE .100g-1 DW). These ranges as well as the varying shapes of fruit are indicators that the trees are extremely hybridized. However, its carotenoid profile and high colour intensity could give rise to antioxidant properties and also find use as a natural food colourant as it has an unusually high concentration of total carotenoids.

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