Carotenoids form structured self-assembly upon aqueous dilution of their organic solutions. In order to test the proposal predicting carotenoid aggregates to be organized in closely packed H-type (card-pack) manner by intermolecular hydrogen bonds, the trihydroxy derivative of capsanthin (1), (6'R)-capsanthol (2) ((all-E,3R,3'S,5'R,6'R)-beta,kappa-carotene-3,3',6'-triol) was acetylated to obtain all varieties of mono-, di- and triacetates and the corresponding supramolecules were studied by UV/Vis- and CD spectroscopy. It was verified that derivatives lacking hydroxyl functions at either of the end-groups form the loosely organized J-type (head-to-tail) aggregates. A model for the structure of the J-type self-assembly is proposed. Evidence was also obtained suggesting that close contacts of carotenoid molecules are not confined to hydrogen bonding.
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Bikádi et al. (2002) studied this question.