Determination of Astaxanthin in Trout by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Visible Detection

Astaxanthin is widely and naturally distributed in marine animals including, crustaceans, such as shrimp, crabs, and fish, such as salmon and trout.

A total of 20 trout samples were collected from local market and were analyzed for astaxanthin via HPLC-UV. Analyte extraction was done by water, methanol, dichloromethane, and acetonitrile 4.5:85:5:45.5, v/v/v/v.

Despite the optimal conditions, analytical property of the method containing lower limit of quantitation (2.00 ng g-1) and upper limit of quantitation (1000 ng g-1), linearity (r2=0.992), and recovery (103%) were acceptable. The results showed the range of 105 ± 0.09 - 875 ± 0.020 ng g-1.

The method was successfully used to quantify the target analytes in all trout samples.