TABLE 2.

Treatment feeds consumed for 28 d by male Mongolian gerbils in 2 studies. Gerbils were fed a provitamin A carotenoid (PAC), lycopene, and anthocyanin-free feed for 21 d before treatments and baseline measurements ¹

Lycopene study	Treatments			Controls
Group (n)	1 (10)	2 (10)	3 (10)	4 (10)	Positive (10)	Negative (10)
Treatment feed2
PAC3	+	+	+	+	—	—
Lycopene	H	MH	ML	L	—	—
(nmol/g)	25.7 ± 5.88	19.6 ± 2.78	15.3 ± 4.11	9.42 ± 2.67	—	—
Oil dose	Vehicle	Vehicle	Vehicle	Vehicle	VA4 +	Vehicle
Anthocyanin study
Group (n)	1 (10)	2 (10)	3 (10)	4 (10)	Positive (10)	Negative (10)
Treatment feed2
PAC3	+	+	+	+	—	—
Lycopene4	+	+	+	+	—	—
Anthocyanins	HA	MHA	MLA	LA	—	—
(μmol/g)	0.098 ± 0.18	0.083 ± 0.19	0.056 ± 0.15	0.038 ± 0.005	—	—
Oil dose	Vehicle	Vehicle	Vehicle	Vehicle	VA5 +/Lyc6 +	Vehicle

H, high lycopene; HA, high anthocyanin; L, low lycopene; LA, low anthocyanin; Lyc, lycopene; MH, medium-to-high lycopene; MHA, medium-to-high anthocyanin; ML, medium-to-low lycopene; MLA, medium-to-low anthocyanin; PAC, provitamin A carotenoid; VA, vitamin A

¹Baseline group measurements were taken in n = 5 and 6 for the lycopene and anthocyanin studies, respectively.

²Treatment feeds fortified with freeze-dried red (the lycopene study) and purple-red carrot (the anthocyanin study).

³Equalized as BCE = β-carotene equivalents, 1 μg = 1 μg β-carotene or 2 μg α-carotene. BCE content of the 4 treatment feeds was 5.59 ± 0.96 μg/g in the lycopene study and 7.02 ± 0.39 μg/g in the anthocyanin study.

⁴Lycopene content was 15.9 ± 0.95 nmol/g.

⁵Provided as retinyl acetate in vehicle soybean oil, equalized to theoretical VA intake the prior day. The retinyl acetate concentrations were 0.874 and 2.03 nmol/μL for the lycopene and anthocyanin studies, respectively.

⁶Provided as purified lycopene extracted from commercial supplements and dissolved in vehicle soybean oil with a final concentration of 2.19 nmol/μL.