.Pharmacolibrary.Drugs.ATC.A.A11CA02

Information

Beta-carotene is a precursor of vitamin A (provitamin A carotenoid) and functions as an antioxidant. It is used as a dietary supplement for vitamin A deficiency and as a food coloring. Despite its historical use in preventing chronic diseases, supplemental beta-carotene is no longer recommended for general populations due to inconclusive effectiveness and possible harm in smokers.

Pharmacokinetics

Estimated parameters for healthy adults; published clinical studies have not consistently reported detailed compartmental pharmacokinetic parameters in humans.

References

1. Woutersen, RA, et al., & Feron, VJ (1999). Safety evaluation of synthetic beta-carotene. Critical reviews in toxicology 29(6) 515–542. DOI:10.1080/10408449991349267 PUBMED:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10628775

2. Newcomb, SA, et al., & Davis, TP (1990). Endogenous levels of beta-carotene in human buccal mucosa cells by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Journal of chromatography 526(1) 47–58. DOI:10.1016/s0378-4347(00)82482-2 PUBMED:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2341545

Revisions

• 06/2025 Tomas Kulhanek, generated model from data extracted from PUBMED, DrugBank and LLM(GPT4.1)