Consumption of canned citrus fruit meals increases human plasma β-cryptoxanthin concentration, whereas lycopene and β-carotene concentrations did not change in healthy adults

Abstract

Several studies suggest that β-cryptoxanthin has a greater plasma response from its common food sources than other carotenoids such as β-carotene and lycopene. The hypothesis of this study is that changes in plasma β-cryptoxanthin concentrations will be greater than changes in plasma β-carotene or lycopene concentrations even if these carotenoids are fed in a similar food matrix, such as citrus fruit. We tested this hypothesis by measuring changes in plasma concentrations of β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, and β-carotene after feeding measured amounts of canned tangerines and pink grapefruit to healthy nonsmoking adult humans. Volunteers served as their own controls and received both citrus fruit treatments randomly. In the first study, 8 subjects ate single meals of 234-304g of tangerines or 60-540g of pink grapefruit. The second study compared changes in plasma carotenoid concentration caused by feeding 234g of tangerines or 540g of pink grapefruit to 11 subjects. Blood was collected 5 times within 24hours after each citrus meal. Carotenoid concentrations were analyzed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Plasma β-cryptoxanthin concentrations increased within 5hours and then stabilized, remaining high throughout the 24hours measured. Plasma concentrations of lycopene and β-carotene did not change. These results show that β-cryptoxanthin concentrations increased after a citrus fruit meal, but lycopene and β-carotene concentrations did not change after a similar citrus fruit meal. These results support our hypothesis that changes in plasma β-cryptoxanthin are greater than changes in plasma lycopene or β-carotene, even when these carotenoids are fed in a similar food matrix.

Effect of lycopene supplementation on cardiovascular parameters and markers of inflammation and oxidation in patients with coronary vascular disease

“…There are a number of recently published clinical trials and meta‐analysis data revealing beneficial health effects of lycopene (Cicero & Colletti, ; Mahmoodnia, Mohammadi, & Masumi, ; Singh & Bagewadi, ; van Die et al., ). However, only few of them (Graff et al., ; Zhu, Gertz, Cai, & Burri, ) adequately address the issue of lycopene bioavailability in volunteers. As we shown above, the ingestion of lycopene does not necessarily translate into sustainable increase in circulating lycopene levels and rather reflects the type of nutraceutical formulation of lycopene used for supplementation.…”

Watermelon juice and aquatic exercises, their synergistic effect on some physical fitness and physiological variables in males and females volunteers

“…In a study which was conducted by Bailey et al, found that L-Citrulline supplementation improved O2 uptake kinetics and high-intensity exercise performance in humans [30]. In addition to that, it was approved that watermelon is rich source of many antioxidants such as β-carotene and lycopene which may increase nitric oxide bioavailability since they have been shown to blunt the scavenging of nitric oxide by superoxide [31]. It has also been reported by Tarazona et al and Cutrufello et al, that ingestion of watermelon juice can attenuate muscle soreness after completing intense exercise [14,32].…”

Safety Evaluation and Plasma Carotenoid Accumulation in Healthy Adult Subjects after 12 Weeks of Paprika Oleoresin Supplementation

“…However, in agreement with our study, serum concentrations of β-cryptoxanthin were higher than those of these carotenoids. Several studies suggest that β-cryptoxanthin is better absorbed from foods and is more bioavailable than other common carotenoids 10,11,13 . Moreover, clearance of β-cryptoxanthin from plasma is similar or faster than that of other carotenoids, such as β-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin 14,15 .…”