Production Methods of Astaxanthin

2020-10-17 19:17

At present, there are many methods for produce astaxanthin in China and abroad, but generally they can be divided into two categories, natural extraction and chemical synthesis.

Natural extraction methods. According to the source of natural astaxanthin, the extraction methods can be divided into three types: various aquatic animals (such as various shrimps and crabs), yeasts (such as Phaffia yeast), and microalgae (such as Yushenghong Chlorella).

 

According to the extraction methods, there are three main types: organic extraction, supercritical CO2 extraction, and enzymatic hydrolysis.

Some astaxanthin exists in aquatic products such as shrimp and crab by using aquatic product extraction, and astaxanthin in aquatic products is extracted by organic solvents or other methods. This production method can not only promote the development of aquaculture, but also reduce Environmental pollution caused by abandoned aquatic products such as shrimp and crab. However, due to the limited number of discarded shrimps and crabs, the low content of astaxanthin and the complicated extraction process, it has been the limiting factor for the widespread promotion of astaxanthin, plus other methods of producing astaxanthin have not fully realized industrialization.

 

The use of yeast extraction to prepare yeast to produce astaxanthin, that is, the yeast is rapidly propagated by fermentation technology, and then the astaxanthin is extracted from the yeast, and the desired product is obtained by isolation and purification.

The main fermentation technologies include continuous fed fermentation, batch fermentation, and intermittent fed fermentation. The advantage of this method is that the yeast cells multiply fast and the cost is low, but the disadvantage is that the content of astaxanthin in the yeast cells is very low, and it is not suitable as the main method for preparing astaxanthin. The current research is mainly focused on the selection and breeding of high astaxanthin-producing strains.