Since carrot represents one of the most important vegetable cultivars, it is widely produced on large areas of the country.

Being both, widely and variously used in man's diet, the edible part of carrot root has enabled this vegetable to rank as a highly useful and as a healthy one. Since carotene essentially contributes to the carrot nutritional quality, determination of its content in the various carrot cultivars has been attempted in the present study.

Field trials were carried out over the growing seasons of 1996 and 1997 on the area surrounding Beograd. The following carrot cultivars were included in the experiments: Amsterdamska, Nantes, Santenej and Flaker. Carotene content in the edible part of carrot root was determined, using spectophotometric method.

Results indicated the highest content of carotene in the cultivar Amsterdamska, 153.4 mg per 1 kg of edible root. The cultivar Santenej was second by carotene content, with 147.86 mg/kg, whereas Nantes and Flaker were relatively poor in its content, with 131.40 and 129.64 mg/kg respectively.

In two years investigation period, the carrot cultivars were found to be richer in carotene content in 1997 than in 1996, with the average difference in carotene content of 23.72 mg/kg. This seemed to be an immediate effect of the environmental factors, particularly of rainfalls on carotene content in carrot root, since carrot requires abundance of moisture to normally synthesise carotene. In 1997 was considerably higher rainfalls (551 mm) than in 1996 (424 mm).

Key words: carrot, carotene, cultivar, content, carrot edible root part