2023-12-13 15:13:15
Astaxanthin is a very popular health care ingredient in recent years. It is often used as a compound component of lutein in health foods related to eye protection. What is astaxanthin? What’s the source? Let a nutritionist explain it to you!
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What is astaxanthin?
Astaxanthin is a deep red carotenoid that is a fat-soluble nutrient and is mainly found in the shells of algae and crustaceans.
The structure of astaxanthin confers high antioxidant properties. According to a 2007 study, in terms of eliminating singlet oxygen: 0.01-15 ????M astaxanthin, its clearance rate is (1）：
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▶︎ 1.58 times of lycopene (0.01-15 ????M)
▶︎ 2.57 times of lutein (0.01-15 ????M)
▶︎ 794 times of CoQ10 (10-3000 ????M)
▶︎ 1,500 times of curcumin (10-10,000 ????M)
▶︎ 6,067 times more vitamin C (20-50,000 ????M)
Although each component has differences in water solubility and fat solubility, it also shows that astaxanthin does have high antioxidant capacity.
Because astaxanthin has strong antioxidant properties, and astaxanthin can regulate cellular mechanisms and reduce inflammation in the human body, studies have pointed out that astaxanthin can improve dry eye symptoms (2), improve negative emotions (3), reduce fatigue (3), improve memory (4), improve exercise status (5) and improve blood lipid oxidation (6) and other effects.
What are the ingredients of astaxanthin?
Astaxanthin is different from general health foods in that it is a substance with a single structure. However, astaxanthin will have different isomers due to its isomerism. For example, astaxanthin from algae and fungi are 3S, 3S’ and 3R, 3’R respectively. Astaxanthin from these different sources will vary depending on the Its isomerism affects antioxidant capacity.
What are the sources of astaxanthin?
Source of astaxanthin⟫Food
In food, astaxanthin is mainly found in shrimp and crab shells, and these are food waste. Therefore, it is difficult for us to obtain sufficient astaxanthin from food and we need to rely on health foods to obtain it.
At present, the main sources of astaxanthin in health food products are krill and algae. In recent years, due to the rise of environmental protection and sustainability issues, the proportion of astaxanthin derived from algae has increased.
Source of astaxanthin ⟫ Source of krill (meat)
Krill is one of the sources of commercially available astaxanthin.
Since krill is rich in astaxanthin, and astaxanthin is fat-soluble, astaxanthin is extracted together with krill oil and becomes one of the main functional components of krill oil. It is a carnivorous health food. .
Astaxanthin Source Three⟫Algae Source (Vegetarian)
Astaxanthin in nature is synthesized by algae and then accumulated in the bodies of shrimps and crabs after being ingested. Today’s technology has made it possible to purify and culture Haematococcus pluvialis, which can synthesize astaxanthin, and obtain “vegetarian” astaxanthin through post-culture extraction.
However, although astaxanthin derived from red algae is vegetarian, other compounds or capsules may be of vegetarian origin. It is recommended that vegetarians still need to confirm whether it is vegan when purchasing astaxanthin health foods!
Literature source
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