The carotene of milk fat (butter)

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Abstract
Earlier chromatographic adsorption expts. with butter carotene on alumina indicated the probable presence of appreciable quantities of [alpha]- as well as of [beta]-carotene in butter fat. More recent work showed that the repeated adsorption of [beta]-carotene itself changed this compound into an a-carotene-like pigment, i.e., pseudo-a-carotene. In the present investigation analytically pure butter carotene was isolated from a mixed sample of colostrum and ordinary milk fat and shown by analysis, melting point, absorption spectra and optical rotation to be practically pure [beta]-carotene. Adsorption on magnesium oxide as well as the determination of the rotation of the pigment showed that, for the mixed sample of butter fat examined, a-carotene was either absent altogether or was present in negligibly small amount (less than 0.3% of the total carotene).

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