Estudo vibracional de carotenóides em amostras biológicas e em complexos de inclusão com ciclodextrinas

Abstract

Raman spectroscopic studies of a range of naturally occurring carotenoids in over 50 specimens of plant tissue and a range of standard extracts have been undertaken, and the characteristic bands of C=C and C–C stretching as well as C–CH3 bending have been recorded. Comparison of the spectroscopic data with the chemical assignment of the carotenoids obtained from chemical extraction of the plant tissues reveals that there is a problem in the interpretation of the spectroscopic data which can be attributed to significant wavenumber shifts, particularly in the C=C stretching band wavenumber, for carotenoids in the organic tissues arising from molecular interactions between the carotenoid and its host matrix. The simple identification of carotenoids in biological tissues on the basis of comparison with the standard spectra of extracted material must be made with caution; the progressive shift in wavenumber of the C=C stretching band in the conjugated polyene chain of carotenoids with the number of C=C groups, and hence the identification of the carotenoid, cannot be unambiguously interpreted for the range of materials studied here. To demonstrate as the chemical environment may influence in the spectroscopic data of the carotenoids, another work using the β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as a matrix, was done. Cyclodextrins are known to be able to form host-guest complexes with hydrophobic molecules given the unique nature imparted by their structure. The stabilization of lycopene, β-carotene, astaxanthin, capsanthin, norbixin by encapsulation using β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was determined by using Raman spectroscopy. The spectroscopic analysis of the C=C and C–C stretching bands from the encapsulated carotenoids clearly demonstrates that there is a significant shift in wavenumber when compared to the pure carotenoids, demonstrating the matrix is a very important factor to be considered in the analysis of the Raman bands of carotenoids.