Supercritical carbon dioxide anti-solvent crystallization of fucoxanthin chromatographically purified from Hincksia mitchellae P.C. Silva

Abstract This study examines the supercritical anti-solvent (SAS) crystallization of chromatographically purified fucoxanthin from the micro-algal species of Hincksia mitchellae P.C. Silva. Two sequential medium-pressure column fractionations where the eluent was a mixed solvent of n -hexane and acetone yielded 719.8 milligrams of fucoxanthin per gram of the fraction. The mean recovery of the two-column fractionation was 85.6%. A few experiments on SAS precipitation from diethyl ether solution were performed at various pressures, injection time, temperature, feed flow rate and concentrations, thereby providing information on the effects of pressure and injection time on the purity of the resultant fucoxanthin. A central-composite response surface method was used to optimize the SAS experiments used to produce the micro-sized particulates containing 876.9 mg of fucoxanthin per gram. The recovery of fucoxanthin by this SAS process was 98.3%. The SAS pressure affected the purity of fucoxanthin more than did the injection time.