ABSTRACT
Associations between consumption of carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables and
health benefits have stimulated interest in measurement of carotenoids in
biological matrices to best assess patterns of carotenoid consumption, bio-
availability, and utilization in humans (1-5). As a result, methodologies have
been developed and applied successfully to determination of carotenoid levels in
a variety of human tissues including major organs such as liver and lung (6-8),
prostate (9), lens and retina (10,11), buccal mucosal cells (12,13), cervical tissue
(14,15), and blood plasma (6,14-23) and plasma fractions (24,25).