False jaundice or carotenemia (xanthemia) is an unusual and abnormal yellowness of the human skin, sometimes actually appearing in the sweat, resulting from the ingestion of carotenoid-rich food such as carrots, oranges or yellow cucurbits in large quantities over protracted periods.
Carotin was inferred, not demonstrated, in these cases, although Salomon measured the extent of the xanthemia in certain individuals by determining the extinction coefficient of the absorption bands of the ether extract of the blood.