A Preliminary Study of Extraction and Purification Processes of Astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialisas a Natural Antioxidant

Abstract

Haematococcus pluvialisis is a species of microalgae which contains a prominent natural antioxidant called astaxanthin. However, the thickness of microalgae cell wall hinders the extraction process. This problem (cell wall destruction) can be overcome by implementing one of the efficient methods, microwave assisted extraction. The purpose of this study is to determine the extraction equilibrium constant and simple experiment data on purification process. The extraction was carried out using acetone as the solvent at 50°C under constant stirring speed which was then followed by refinement process. Thin layer chromatography was also performed to select the suitable eluent for purification that drew upon chromatographic column. Based on the experiment, the best eluent from thin layer chromatography was a mixture of acetone and petroleum ether 1:1 (v/v), with the retardation factor (Rf) value of 0.649 under atmospheric pressure. Likewise the highest astaxanthin purity was 6.451mg/L. Meanwhile, the equilibrium constant was investigated by employing the mathematical modeling.