Isolation of Fucoxanthin from the Rhizoid of Laminaria japonica Aresch

Fucoxanthin was extracted from the intact rhizoid of Laminariajaponica Aresch with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), and then recovered from the DMSO extract by partitioning into ethyl acetate and subse-quent evaporation. Some isolation conditions such as solvent volume and extraction time were screened.The quantity and quality of the extracted fucoxanthin were determined by spectral analysis (absorptionspectra and fluorescence emission spectra). The results indicated that: (1) the average total content offucoxanthin was 122.1 μg in 1 g of fresh L. japonica rhizoid; (2) in comparison with the widely used organicsolvent, acetone, DMSO was much more effective for the extraction of fucoxanthin; (3) both DMSO volumeand extraction time influenced extraction efficiency such as the recovery rate and purity of fucoxanthin (1 gpurity 0.63); (4) when (NH4)2SO4 concentration was in the range of 0.5-1.0 mol/L, the pigments rapidly andentirely moved from DMSO into the ethyl acetate phase; (5) the ethyl acetate and DMSO were recycledusing a rotary evaporator.