Aim of the study was to investigate efficiency of hydroxy (lutein, LUT), Keto-(astaxanthin, AST) and epoxy-(fucoxanthin, FUCO) carotenoids on molecular/biochemical events in proliferation of RAW 264.7 and HL-60 cells. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced RAW 264.7 cells treated either with 20 µM of LUT or AST or FUCO or without carotenoid for 12 h, and studied their differential influence on toxicity, inflammatory markers and nuclear factor-κB p65 (NF-κB p65) expression levels. Similarly, HL-60 cells treated for 48 h and evaluated cytotoxicity and apoptosis inducing activity. It was observed, carotenoids treatment decreased cytotoxicity of LPS induced inflammation in macrophages. Among carotenoids, FUCO protects cytotoxicity by 10.7 and 15.8% than AST and LUT, respectively. Likewise, carotenoids treatments reduced Nitric oxide (NO), Prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ) and NF-κB p65 levels than LPS treated group, while FUCO shown to be superior to control markers of inflammation than AST and LUT. Similarly, in case of HL-60 cells, FUCO significantly reduced cell viability by 16.4 and 33.4% than AST and LUT, respectively. Further, increased apoptosis of HL-60 positively correlates with decreased glutathione, and increased malondialdehyde and oxidative stress in cells treated with FUCO than AST and LUT. Also, typical apoptotic morphological changes were observed in FUCO treated cells than other oxygenated carotenoids. These differences among oxygenated carotenoids may be due to functional group and reactivity with the cells. Further, we presumed that an increase in the number of oxygen or hydroxyl groups in the carotenoids may decide the bioactivity. This study provides a greater insight of oxygenated carotenoids to combat chemoprevention of cancers originating from inflammation.