Stability of carotenoids toward UV-irradiation in hexane solution

Abstract

The stabilities of four selected carotenoids dissolved in hexane, two carotenes and two xanthophylls, toward UV-irradiation of three different ranges (UV-A, UV-B and UV-C) were studied in this work. The carotenoids underwent bleaching via a probable free radical mediated mechanism following first-order kinetics. The bleaching rates were highly dependent on the input of the involved photons and, although not consistently, on the chemical structures of the investigated compounds. For the two xanthophylls, a possible role of oxygen associated with their bleaching cannot be neglected.

Keywords

• UV-irradiation
• free radicals
• bleaching
• kinetics