Production methods of natural astaxanthin

Haematococcus pluvialis cultivation is through haematococcus pluvialis cell’s reproduction and growth, thereby get the haematococcus pluvialis cells which containing astaxanthin. At present, international haematococcus pluvialis cultivation normally have the following two methods:

Outdoor pond (runway pool) cultivating: simple operation, the astaxanthin in haematococcus pluvialis is low content and poor quality. This method is generally used to cultivate Spirulina, Dunaliella and Chlorella, but do not conducive to haematococcus pluvialis cultivate. Haematococcus pluvialis is a vulnerable algae, poor reproductive capacity, slow growth rate, can easily be polluted by other algae and microorganism in cultivating process, and at a disadvantage in competition with other algae and micro-organisms, growth was inhibited even stop. Cultivating in a large pool in the open air, suffer the wind and rain, culture conditions beyond the control, bacteria, fungi, protozoa (such as rotifers, etc.) and other algae (cyanobacteria, etc.) will invade and mass multiply, thereby inhibiting haematococcus pluvialis growth. So that it must be added antibiotics to control the bacterial production, adding pesticides to control fungi, adding insecticides to control the protozoa, adding herbicides and algaecidal to control cyanobacteria.

Outdoor pipeline cultivating: cutivating haematococcus pluvialis in circulating pipeline. This method reduces the evaporation of water and the entry of dust in the air during cultivating, but the same with the large pond cultivating, it can not ensure them be cultivated in a aseptic and pure environment, it will be contaminated by bacteria, fungi, protozoa and algae, so that pipeline cultivating must also be added antibiotics, insecticides, pesticides, herbicides and so on to control pollution, which will lead to these harmful substances vestigital.

The astaxanthin extract is using certain technology to extract the accumulated astaxanthin from haematococcus pluvialis cells, then produce the astaxanthin oil. Extraction method is mainly divided into two types: the solvent extraction, because of astaxanthin is a lipid (oil) insoluble substance, generally extracted by n-hexane, chloroform, petroleum ether, acetone or industrial ethanol and other organic solvent extraction. The method is simple, low cost of extraction. but the residues of harmful organic solvents will exist in astaxanthin, namely the residual solvent. Supercritical liquid carbon dioxide extract, which is currently the most advanced green extraction method. Using supercritical extraction apparatus under high pressure with innocuous liquid carbon dioxide as solvent to extract astaxanthin, this method is demanded for good equipment and technology, the production cost is also high, but the quality of the extracted astaxanthin is good, without any residual solvent, and maintaining the activity of astaxanthin.

In summary, the natural astaxanthin quality depends on the technology and methods of producing natural astaxanthin. Every aspect of production will affect the natural astaxanthin’s quality. The cultivation method determined the quality of haematococcus pluvialis. What’s more, algae powder quality and extracted method finally decide the quality of astaxanthin oil. Natural astaxanthin as the super antioxidant ingredients of cosmetics material, is processed by natural astaxanthin oil, so that each of the production process can affect the quality of the cosmetics.

Source:http://www.cosprm.com