Astaxanthin

A chiral HPLC method for the simultaneous separation of configurational isomers of the predominant cis/trans forms of astaxanthin.

Abu-Lafi S, Turujman SA.

Office of Cosmetics and Colors, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Washington, DC 20204, USA.

We report an HPLC method that allows the simultaneous separation of configurational isomers of the predominant cis/trans forms of astaxanthin. The configurational isomers of the all-trans-, and most of the configurational isomers of the 9-cis-, 13-cis- and 15-cis-astaxanthin were separated on a Sumichiral OA-2000 column, which is manufactured and packed in Japan with a Pirkle covalent D-phenylglycine chiral stationary phase (CSP). The large separation of the cis isomers from the all-trans isomers that we report here ensure the suitability of this method for the routine determination of the ratio of the configurational isomers of all-trans-astaxanthin.

PMID: 9676271 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]