Extracción de Estándares de Carotenoides a Partir de Diferentes Especies Vegetales y Comprobación de su Efectividad en Flores Ornamentales Ecuatorianas como Recurso de Alimentación

General objective Extraction of carotenoid standards from different plant species. Quantification of bioactive compounds in 18 Ecuadorian ornamental flowers as a food resource. Justification The lack of carotenoid standards, mainly worldwide, limits the progress of chromatographic studies of this type of compound. In Ecuador, few centers have been found that have focused their efforts on individually studying these biactive compounds, mainly focusing their research on the quantification of the total content by spectrophotometry. On the other hand, the limited studies have been framed by the lack of carotenoid standards worldwide and the excessive costs of a pure standard, necessary for the identification of the different carotenoids, which has limited progress in this line. This study It is part of the starting point in the advancement in the knowledge of bioactive compounds, mainly in Ecuador, since without standards or comparison patterns necessary for the area of ​​liquid chromatography, an understanding of the individual compound and the biological processes of its formation cannot be achieved. the plant that accompanies its appearance in it. In addition, future research within the UPS is framed in finding the production of high levels of bioactive compounds in different plant species and their subsequent extraction and purification for addition to dairy products or supplementation in food with the aim of increasing the content of these bioactive compounds in cow or goat milk, thus achieving improvements in the nutrition of the Ecuadorian people who have vitamin deficiencies, mainly in marginal sectors. On the other hand, the investigation of flowers under the nutritional approach is important due to the scarce number of investigations in the field of food, it would provide relevant information within the world gastronomy and would provide the visualization of the possible benefits for health. In addition, the great diversity of floral species that Ecuador has and the little diffusion that they have within the gastronomy would provide another resource in food within direct consumption or through isolates of bioactive compounds that fortify different products, favoring the health of the consumer and giving opportunity to the interaction of new research that relates several disciplines such as agronomy, botany, food science, toxicology, among others.