• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2014

Coloring agents in food materials plays important roles in the development of attractive products as well as in the functionality of food such as antioxidant or vitamin supplementation. Carrot has been used as an orange coloring agent in the decoration of food but also a major source of vitamin A complex. Though orange has been considered a typical color of carrot, the Rainbow carrot has been developed recently, which exhibit the various colors such as red, pale yellow, purple, orange or their mixtures. After categorization onto 8 groups by their colors, vitamin A complex (${\beta}$-carotene, lycopene and lutein) and soluble sugars (glucose, fructose, and sucrose) have been analyzed in carrots. The ${\beta}$-carotene was abundant in the groups of orange (Group-O) or groups with the orange color (group-OP, and group-YOP). The content of lycopene content was exclusively high in the red color carrot (group-R). The highest lutein contents were observed from the yellow-purple (group-YP) group. Meanwhile, little amounts of lycopene and ${\beta}$-carotene were observed in yellow-purple (group-YP) nor yellow (group-Y) on yellow (group-Y). Among the reducing sugars in 'rainbow carrots', the amount of sucrose was two times higher than those of fructose and glucose. However, the content of glucose, fructose and sucrose as well as the total reducing sugars did not differ between color groups suggesting little variations on their tastes.