Absorption, transport, and deposition in chickens of lutein diester, a carotenoid extracted from marigold (Tagetes erecta) petals.

Young broiler chickens were fed from hatching until 3 weeks of age with a white corn-soy diet amended with varying amounts of lutein diester to supply 0, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 micrograms free lutein/g diet. The lutein diester was added as a stabilized, microencapsulated extract of marigold (Tagetes erecta) petals. The concentrations of lutein diester, lutein monoester, and lutein in the contents of the jejunum and large intestine and in serum, liver, and toe web from these birds were measured by high pressure liquid chromatography. The contents of the jejunum and large intestine contained a mixture of lutein diester, lutein monoester, and lutein. The serum contained lutein (approximately 90%), lutein monoester (approximately 10%), and traces of lutein diester. The liver contained the three carotenoid classes in ratios reflecting the serum ratios. The ratios in toe web, an integumentary depot site, were reversed with lutein diester much greater than lutein monoester greater than lutein. The concentrations of each class in each tissue bore a linear relationship to the concentration of lutein diester in the diet. A simple explanation for these data is that the dietary lutein diester was hydrolyzed mainly to lutein, which was absorbed through the intestinal wall into the blood stream where it was transported to the liver, a storage site, and to the integumentary sites where it is esterified to lutein diester which is the main depot form.