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The Accumulation of - and ß-Carotene in Serum and Tissues of Preruminant Calves Fed Raw and Steamed Carrot Slurries^{1, 2,}

Christopher L. Poor^*, Tiffany L. Bierer, Neal R. Merchen^*,, George C. Fahey, Jr.^*, and John W. Erdman, Jr.^*,,3

^* Division of Nutritional Sciences Department of Food Science Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801

The preruminant calf model was used to evaluate the effects of mild heat treatment on the serum and tissue accumulation of - and ß-carotene from carrots. Twenty-four 1-wk-old Holstein male calves were assigned to one of four groups and fed a milk replacer diet. Negative control animals received no additional supplement. The three remaining groups received an additional 20 mg ß-carotene/d from either water-soluble beadlets, homogenized raw carrots or homogenized steamed carrots. Serum samples were obtained daily, and calves were killed after 7 d and samples of serum, liver and adrenal collected. Tissue and serum - and ß-carotene concentrations were not significantly higher in steamed carrot-fed animals than in raw carrot-fed animals. The molar ratios of ß-carotene to -carotene in both raw carrot-fed and steamed carrot-fed groups were highest in adrenal tissues, intermediate in serum and lowest in the diets. None of these differences were statistically significant. When the serum, liver and adrenal ß-carotene data were pooled, the mean relative accumulation of ß-carotene, expressed as a percentage of the mean response of calves receiving water-soluble beadlets, was 46.8% for calves fed raw carrots and 74.0% for calves fed steamed carrots. These results suggest a small enhancing effect of mild heat treatment of carrots on the serum and tissue accumulation of carotenoids.

KEY WORDS: • ß-carotene • preruminant calves • -carotene • tissue accumulation • vitamin A

¹ Supported by CSRS-USDA under agreement #89-37200-4452.

² Portions of this work previously reported at the 1992 Gordon Research Conference on Carotenoids, March 9–13, 1992, Oxnard, CA and at the Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology [Poor, C. L., Bierer, T. L., Merchen, N. R., Fahey, G. C., Jr. & Erdman, J. W., Jr. (1992) Beta-carotene bioavailability evaluated in the preruminant calf model. FASEB J. 6:A1657 (abs. 4173)].

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 1 September 1992. Revision accepted 17 February 1993.