Preparative Isolation and Purification of Astaxanthin from the Green Microalga Chlorococcum Sp. by High-Speed Counter-Current Chromatography

High-speed counter-current chromatography was applied to the isolation and purification of astaxanthin from microalgae. The crude astaxanthin was obtained by extraction with organic solvents after the astaxanthin esters were saponified. Preparative high-speed counter-current chromatography with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-ethanol-water (5:5:6.5:3, v/v) was successfully performed yielding astaxanthin at 97 % purity from 250 mg of the crude extract in a one-step separation. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.