Vegetables were analyzed for vitamin C and carotene content. Four selected species were subjected to solar dehydration with and without photoprotection. Two pretreatments, steam blanching and sulfiting, were applied and carotene retention in the resulting dried products was evaluated. A control study was conducted with ambient temperature shade dried material subjected to the same pretreatments. Mango and papaya were similarly subjected to blanching and citric acid and sucrose pretreatments, respectively, and retention of carotene and vitamin C in the dried products was observed. Carotene retention in the ambient temperature dried treatments was lower than in the solar dried treatments with continued losses in storage. Light protected drying resulted in higher retention than light exposed drying and steam blanching improved retention significantly. Papaya showed appreciably higher retention of vitamin C on drying than did mango, while the latter showed significantly higher carotene retention. Steam blanching of mango prior to drying resulted in appreciable losses of both absorbic acid and carotene.