Abstract

Antioxidants are molecules capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Plants are always be a good source of natural antioxidants. Plant antioxidants include a broad variety of substances, carotene is one of them. Carotenes are plant pigments responsible for bright colour of fruits and vegetables. In addition, carotenes increase resistance towards oxidative damage and make substantial impact on human health. In human, damage of cells by free radicals is believed to play a central role in the aging process and in disease progression. Due to greater demand of highly-priced carotenes, there is a need to look for alternative cheap sources for harnessing carotenes. Aming to find a sustainable alternative source, the present study was conducted to harvest the valuable botanicals including carotenes from pericarp tissues of ripened Areca catechu fruit. Soxhlet extraction of pericarp tissues with acetone Upper heptane part was taken and evaporated Resuspended in Diethyl ether Rapid separation of carotenes using Sep-Pak ® cartridge Quantification of total carotenes by spectrophotometer method (1) Fractions were collected