Your mother and your grandmother were right when they said to eat your carrots for healthy eyes. Beta carotene, a carotenoid found in carrots, is a molecule that the body easily changes into vitamin A. In which group of organic molecules do carotenoids belong?
Carotenoids belong to the category of tetraterpenoids. They contain 40 carbon atoms, being built from four terpene units each containing 10 carbon atoms.