Abstract: Carotenoids are lipophilic isoprenoid pigments produced by plants and some photosynthetic microorganisms, which are ubiquitous in nature. Depending on the variety and the bond cleavage positions, carotenoids can be derivatized into various products playing key roles in living organisms such as retinoids, pigments, phytohormones and aroma compounds. Currently, many methods including physical, chemical and biological (specific enzymatic and non-specific enzymatic degradation) methods have been presented to degrade carotenoids. In this article, the classification and functional properties of cleavage products of carotenoids are described. Moreover, this article provides a comprehensive review of the current methods to degrade carotenoids and highlights the advantages of the biological degradation methods with focus on specific enzymatic and non-specific enzymatic degradation as well as the enzymatic cleavage sites. In the end, we conclude with some perspectives on future research efforts to screen highly active carotenoid-degrading enzymes for application in the food industry.

Key words: carotenoids, cleavage products, degradation pathways, biological enzymes, microorganisms