carotenoids
Are carotenoids Earth’s first Light Harvesters? I don’t know, but I’m now trying to find them in my mud. But first, Some positive controls!
2 tomoto skins from my mom’s CSA
16 dandelion greens from 2 different plants in my mom’s back yard
1 carrot from her fridge (from the grocery store).
1 mandarin? (from the grocery store - not sure its a mandarin bc the label had been thrown out)
Some 91% isopropyl from the local pharmacy, a hand-held immersion blender, some coffee filters and aluminum foil!
Why these garden wonders?
Carrots are loaded with alpha and beta-carotene
Dandilions have lutein, zeaxanthin (xanthophylls) and lots of beta-carotene (it hides under the chlorophyll).
Tomato skins have lycopene (makes them red!) and precursors like photoene and phytofluene
Mandarins have a lot of beta-cryptoxanthin (why I chose it) but also violaxanthin, beta-citraurin, lutein, and zeaxanthin, photoene, phytofluene, zeta-carotene, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene.
skin from 2 tomatoes
leaves from 2 dandelions
1 carrot
1 mandarin skin + 1 section
Taken From: “Molecular components affecting ocular carotenoid and retinoid homeostasis”
Published in: Progress in Retinal and Eye Research 80 (2021) 100864
Written by: Johannes von Lintiga, Jean Moon & Darwin Babino
Notice how some have no hexane ring (acyclic), others have no oxygen groups and others do (hydroxy), but they are all approximately the same structure.
Right now they are in my mom’s freezer, dripping thru the coffee filter into 50 ml tubes. I will keep them cold and dark. and hopefully in a few days, I will visit a friend’s lab to spin the carotenoids down in a cold vacuum centrifuge! I’m trying to make carotenoid rich powder as a positive control!
