=+39. Use of sucrose as a carbon source for the production of chemicals is uneconomical. Beet molasses is a readily available and lower-priced substitute. The article “Optimization of the Production of -Carotene from Molasses by Blakeslea trispora” (J. of Chem.

Tech. and Biotech. 2002: 933–943) carried out a multiple regression analysis to relate the dependent variable y 5 amount of -carotene (g/dm3

) to the