| 释义 |
car·o·tene
\ˈkarəˌtēn also -er-\ noun
also car·o·tin \-ətən, -tə̇n\; or car·ro·tene or car·ro·tin
(-s)
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary carot- (from Late Latin carota carrot) + -ene or -in; probably originally formed as German karotin — more at carrot
: any of several orange or red crystalline pigments of the class of carotenoid hydrocarbons commonly occurring in the chromoplasts of plants and in the fatty tissues of plant-eating animals: as
a. : a mixture of three such pigments C40H56 convertible in the animal body to vitamin A, obtained especially from various plant sources (as carrots and alfalfa), and used as a precursor of vitamin A and as a color for foods
b. : any of the three pigments C40H56 convertible in the animal body to vitamin A, characterized chemically by one or two unsaturated rings terminating a long aliphatic polyene chain, and distinguished according to the number and nature of these rings as α-, β-, and γ-carotene; specifically : the dark-red β-carotene that is the most widely distributed carotenoid and the principal pigment of carrots, that is also made synthetically, and that is the most active provitamin A since its molecule contains two rings of the type present in the vitamin A molecule |