MAMMALIAN CAROTENOIDS 



Table 41. — The Relative Proportions of Carotenoids in human Milk* 



♦From Kon and Mawson (1950) Med. Res. Council Sp. Rept. Series No. 269. 



Other organs which store carotenoids in approximately the same 

 ratio as that in which they occur in the diet are the adrenals/ °' * * 

 seminal vesicles,^' the placenta, ^ ^' ^ ' heart tissue,*^ the liver, ^''^^ 

 pancreas, * ° nerves * ^ and bone marrow. * ^ On the other hand corpora 

 lutea contain almost exclusively p-carotene with only traces of xantho- 

 phylls, ^'^^ whilst the pigment of the macular region of the retina 

 may be simply lutein. "^^ Carotenoids accumulate in the fatty depots 

 throughout life and this accounts for the fact that adult fat is yellow 

 and infant fat almost white. ^ ^ 



Zechmeister and Tuszon isolated carotene and lycopene in crystalline 

 form from human fat. They also noted the presence of an unidentified 

 carotenoid with an absorption spectrum exhibiting maxima in CSg at 

 456 and 428 mpi. From modern knowledge, this may be either auro-. 

 chrome, ^-carotene or auroxanthin 



When, for any reason, body fat is mobilized, carotenoids remain in the 

 depots and this is the reason, according to Thompson ^ ^ why fat from 

 emaciated humans is much yellower than that from well nourished 

 humans. Thompson's work also suggests that fat from the abdomen 

 and chest is richer in carotenoids than is that from thighs and arms, 

 and that there is also a sex difference in amounts deposited. That this 

 latter difference is significant is doubtful although Poulssen** had 

 previously claimed that female fat had twice the vitamin A activity 

 (? carotenoid content) of male fat. Thompson further noted that fat 

 from atherosclerotic aortae contained much greater concentration of 

 carotenoids than did the corresponding fat depots and that the con- 

 centration in suprarenal fat was ten times greater than in body fat. 

 About the same time Aschoff^® reported that fat from adrenals con- 

 tained twenty and that from atheromatous fat ten times as much as 

 did subcutaneous fat. 



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