Study on Fucoxanthin Extraction from Laminaria Japonica with Ethanol Solution for Health Food Development

In order to reuse fucoxanthin (fucox) from Laminaria japonica processing wastes and develop some products containing fucox as health food supplement, animal feed additive or drug candidate, a new extraction method (ethanol solution extraction) was adopted in this paper. The effects of particle size of Laminaria japonica, the characteristics of ethanol solution (solvent volume, ethanol concentration and pH) and drying temperature on fucox yield were under investigation. The results showed that the maximal fucox amount, 252±13μg, could be produced from 1g powdered dry commercial Laminaria japonica under the conditions of pH5.3 (without adjustment), 20ml 80% ethanol solution and sequential 0.5h extraction for three times. In addition, it's more suitable for fucoxanthin extraction with 60% ethanol solution and drying at 55°C if the effects of hot-wind-drying and economical factor being considered, and the final recovery rate of fucoxanthin was 69.5% when dried at 55°C.