Natural Astaxanthin-Powerful Antioxidant
Astaxanthin is a reddish pigment that belongs to a group of chemicals called carotenoids.
Astaxanthin is used as a dietary supplement for human consumption as well as feed supplement as food colorant for salmon, crabs, shrimp, chickens and egg production.
Properties
Product Name: Astaxanthin
IUPAC Name: 3,3'-dihydroxy-ß-carotene-4,4'-dione
CAS Number: 472-61-7
Chemical Formula:C40H52O4
Mol. Weight:596.84
Structure:
Sepcification
Assay(HPLC) ≥10.0%
Moisture and volatile matter ≤6.0%
Ash ≤5.0%
Lead ≤1.0mg/Kg
Arsenic ≤1.0mg/Kg
Mercury ≤0.1mg/Kg
Total plate count ≤1000CFU/g
Coliforms ≤40MNP/100g
Mould ≤25CFU/g
Yeats ≤25CFU/g
Salmonella Absent
Shigella Absent
Staphylococcus aureus Absent
Appearance Dark red liquid oil
Source
Algae are the primary natural source of astaxanthin in the aquatic food chain. The microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis seems to accumulate the highest levels of astaxanthin in nature and is currently, the primary industrial source for natural astaxanthin production where more than 40 g of astaxanthin can be obtained from one kg of dry biomass.
Application
Health care
Astaxanthin is the most efficient purely natural antioxidant discovered so far and it plays a major role in removing free radicals in the human body improving its anti-aging ability. In addition, its natural resistance to oxidization is 10 times stronger than carotenoid and 1,000 times higher than VE. What is more important is that natural astaxanthin can penetrate through three principal barriers of human beings, namely, blood brain barrier, blood pancreas barrier and blood testicle barrier. As the only carotenoid with a potential to penetrate through the blood brain barrier and act on brain cells and eyeball retinal, it prevents the development of neurological diseases such as AD and the Parkinson's disease. Considering astaxanthin possesses many critical physiological and biological functions of oxidization resistance, anticancer and immunity strengthening, etc., it has been broadly applied in the health care product field.
Cosmetic
Astaxanthin with a powerful oxidization resistance ability can efficiently quench free radicals caused by ultraviolet light to prevent skin photoage, reduce damages of UVA and UVB to the skin and avoid the development of skin cancer. In addition, harmful free radicals in cells are also eliminated to the greatest extent to slow cell aging, reduce skin wrinkles, melanin deposition and freckles generated, and retain moisture, so as to make the skin more elastic and more moisturized. Currently, it has been adopted by many cosmetics brands in the world as a composition of ultrastrong antioxidant to be widely applied in moisturizers, anti-wrinkle eye creams, facial masks and lipsticks, etc..
Food
Astaxanthin has been applied into the food industry as a natural antioxidant with effects of immunity enhancing and anti-aging. Thanks to functions of retaining freshness, original flavor and the quality, it is also used to keep initial nutrients of the food. Meanwhile, astaxanthin being naturally and bright red true to life has an extremely strong pigmentation ability and a high tinting strength and has a preferable shading effect. Therefore, it is added into food to effectively improve its sensory properties and make it more attractive to consumers.
Feed
In the field of feed additives in breeding industry, astaxanthin is utilized as a feed additive for abalone, sturgeon, trout, rainbow trout, red porgy, shellfish, fancy fishes, poultry and live pigs to replenish the pigment and further promote market values of relevant products. Moreover, astaxanthin is also a necessary vitamin required by aquatic livestock and plays an important role in their regular growth, healthful aquaculture, and survival rate and reproductive rate improvement.
