Determination of carotenoid pigments in several tree leaves by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract A rapid and simple reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been used to analyse all carotenoid pigments from leaves of five different trees. The pigments were separated on an octadecylsilane radial compression column, using a mobile phase mixtures of acetonitrile, methanol-water and ethyl acetate in three isocratic steps. This method resolves all higher plant photosynthetic pigments, carotenoids and also chlorophylls in less than 15 min, while achieving a relatively good separation of trans -lutein—the major carotenoid—from its isomers zeaxanthin and cis -lutein.