© All Rights Reserved *Corresponding author. Email: sagarikae@hotmail.com Tel: 009411 2803578; Fax: 009411 2801604 International Food Research Journal 20(4): 1873-1875 (2013) Journal homepage: http://www.ifrj.upm.edu.my Wageesha, N. D. A., * Ekanayake, S. and Jansz, E. R. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka Prevalence of hypercarotenaemia in nursery/kindergarten children in the Western province in Sri Lanka: a preliminary survey Abstract Hypercarotenaemia is seen more frequently among young infants and children. This condition develops mainly due to excessive intake of carotenoid bearing foods. Evidence shows that, not all infants develop hypercarotenaemia due to excessive intake of carotenoid containing foods. The objective of this study was to study the prevalence of hypercarotenaemia among nursery/kindergarten children in the Western province of Sri Lanka and to correlate the food intake with development of hypercarotenaemia. The occurrence of hypercarotenaemia among their siblings fed similar diets was also observed. A self administrated questionnaire was given to the parents (n = 780) of nursery/kindergarten children (2-5 years) in the Western province to collect information on the intake of carotenoid rich foods and development of hypercarotenaemia among the children attending these nurseries and their siblings. Among all the subjects investigated twelve (n = 12) had developed hypercarotenaemia. Children fed with high carotenoid bearing food/fruits were categorized in to two groups depending on the whether they have received a vitamin A mega dose (n = 287) or not (n = 328). The prevalence of hypercarotenaemia among children fed high quantity of carotenoid foods (n = 615) was 2%, while the group fed with vitamin A mega dose and not fed vitamin A mega dose were 1.4% and 2.5% respectively. We suggest a genetic effect that is probably recessive, involved with absorption or the metabolism of carotenoids in children who develop hypercarotenaemia. In conclusion, the study showed the prevalence of hypercarotenaemia to be <2%, irrespective of the amount of carotenoids ingested and vitamin A mega dosing. Introduction Hypercarotenaemia is commonly observed among young infants and children in Sri Lanka. The main cause for development of hypercarotenaemia is excessive ingestion of carotenoid bearing food and fruits more than three times per week (Priyadarshani et al., 2009; Wageesha et al., 2011). Due to the lipophilic nature, carotenoids deposit in the adipose tissue and impart a yellow colouration especially to palms, soles and areas where subcutaneous fat is abound. There is some evidence that not all infants fed high carotenoid diets develop this clinical feature of hypercarotenaemia. Hypercarotenaemia can be verified by elevated serum carotenoids level, a normal or slightly elevated vitamin A level and normal liver and thyroid function tests. Children with liver diseases, hypothyroidism or diabetes mellitus are easily distinguished from hypercarotenaemia unassociated with excessive intake of carotenoids. It was proven that a mutation in carotenoid 15, 15´ monooxygenase (CMO1) which catalyses the first step in the conversion of dietary pro-vitamin A carotenoids to vitamin A in the small intestine cause symptoms of hypercarotenaemia (Lindqvist et al., 2007). The possibility of a role of genetically based metabolic factor was postulated (Lindqvist et al., 2007). The sequence of the metabolism of carotenoids involves the conversion of these hydrocarbons to mono-hydroxy metabolites and to poly-hydroxy metabolites. The liver cytochrome P450 system increases the polarity and thus the solubility by the addition of hydroxy groups, first to the hydrocarbon and then to the metabolites in order to promote excretion from the body (Rock, 1997). There were no reported detailed studies on the prevalence of hypercarotenaemia globally except for a study which had investigated the prevalence of hypercarotenaemia among anorexia nervosa populations (Boland et al., 2001). Since hypercarotenaemia among children is presenting an increasing prevalence (unpublished data) an attempt was made to find the frequency of occurrence of hypercarotenaemia among Sri Lankan children. Since it was practically difficult to conduct such a study in the whole island the Western province was selected. The main objectives were to study the prevalence Keywords Hypercarotenaemia Prevalence Children Article history Received: 22 May 2012 Received in revised form: 31 January 2013 Accepted: 4 February 2013