Contenido de carotenos en el follaje de Pinus caribaea Morelet y Pinus tropicalis Morelet

an analysis of the vegetable material from the species pinus cariabaea morelet and pinus tropicalis morelet was carried out and their content of carotene was determined taking as the basis the conditions and time of exposure of the foliage of the species studied to the sun and shade, and also taking into account the extraction of the essential oil as factors influencing on the variation of carotene concentrations. for the determination of the carotene content, samples of the foliage between 1 and 20 exposed to working conditions at intervals of 1, 3, 6, 10 and 20 d were taken, both before and after the extraction of the essential oil. results obteined from both species showed that the foliage exposed to shade contains a higher percentage of carotene than the one exposed to the sun, as it was expected to be; the time of exposure influences in a significant way on the content of carotene, as well as the extraction of essential oil which increases the content of carotene; maximum values were 130.7 and 157.2 mg/kg of foliage for pinus cariabaea morelet and pinus tropicalis morelet, respectively.