Application of Photothermal Methods for Quantification of Carotenoids in Apricot Jams

Carotenes, found in a diversity of fruit-containing foods, are important sources of antioxidants; a good example is apricot jam. In the study described in this paper, both the total carotenoid content ( TCC ) as well as the content of β -carotene in six different apricot jams were quantified using traditional (UV–VIS) spectrophotometry (SP), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), laser photoacoustic spectroscopy (LPAS), and the optothermal window (OW) method. Unlike SP and HPLC, LPAS and the OW methods require the minimum of sample preparation and only a one time calibration step which enables practically direct quantification of the TCC . Results were verified versus data obtained with SP as the reference technique. It was shown that LPAS and the OW method (at 473 nm) provide satisfactory results with R 2 = 0.9884 and 0.9766 for LPAS and OW, respectively.