Abstract—The potential nutraceutical benefits of carotenoids, which are versatile bioactive compounds, have been of great interest recently for its applications as dietary supplements. Carotenoids are red-orange coloured pigments which absorb light in the wavelength region of 400-550 nm. They are produced by plants, bacteria, algae and fungi and are abundantly distributed in the nature. In this study, our focus is on beta-cryptoxanthin (β-CRX), a yellow colored pro-vitamin A xanthophyll which is extracted from a previously isolated bacterium Kocuria marina DAGII grown in Brain Heart Infusion and sub-cultured in low cost dairy waste like whey and incubated at 25°C and 150 rpm for 5 days. The extracted beta-cryptoxanthin showed good radical scavenging activity and played a role in inhibition of lipid oxidation.
Transferrin is a glycoprotein which plays a significant role in the mobilisation of iron in the body. It has two receptors TfR1 and TfR2 amongst which TfR1 binds to the iron-loaded transferrin. In cases of secondary hemochromatosis, HFE protein competes with transferrin to bind to TfR1 which leads to iron built up which is detrimental to the human body. Beta-cryptoxanthin was found to bind to Transferrin with a binding energy of -8.2 kcal/mol.

Index Terms—Beta-cryptoxanthin, lipid oxidation, radical scavenging, transferrin.

The authors are with Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, India (email: debjani.dutta@bt.nitdgp.ac.in).

Cite: Anushka Ghosh, Ujani Hazra, Debjani Dutta, "Role of β-Cryptoxanthin as an Antioxidant and Its Ability to Bind with Transferrin," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 258-264, 2019.