No abstract

The carotenoids contents of pumpkin were determined in this study by spectrophotometric method. This method was applied on beta-carotene as standard solution as well as samples. The absorption were determined at λmax 454 nm, the analytical method was validated by evaluating linearity, precision, accuracy, LODs, and LOQs of the analyts. Beer’s law is obeyed over the concentration of (0.3-9) µg/ml with a linear regression correlation coefficient of 0.9986, and recovery in range from 98.5-102.2%. After the validation was performed using standard solution, the method then was applied on samples of pumpkin available in local market in Syria after extraction the carotenoids by using Acetone/ Dichloromethane 70/30 .The results ranged between 216.46 - 80.56 µg/g. During boiling for pumpkin, the level of carotenoid reduced between 0.45-13.26 %, 0.18 – 23.07%, 17.3-40.54%, 22.65-51.73%, 14.91_55.82% and 26.16 – 72.56%, for 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 and 60 min respectively. According to the obtained result results, it is concluded that the boiling reduced carotenoid at different rates.