Natural bioactives are an excellent source of carotenoids for the production of nutraceuticals, functional foods and food additives. The extraction efficiencies of solid-liquid extraction (SLE), supercritical CO, supercritical CO with ethanol as co-solvent for the recovery of the carotenoids, xanthophyll and fucoxanthin, from two brown macroalgae Fucus serratus and Laminaria digitata were explored. The extraction efficiency was measured using both purity and yield of target compounds. Solid liquid extraction (hexane/acetone (70:30) at 50 °C for 24 h produced the greatest yield of carotenoid rich extracts from F. serratus. Optimal conditions in terms of carotenoid yield using supercritical CO were 50 °C, 300 Atm with an extraction time of 60 min. SCO yielded a higher purity of fucoxanthin while SLE resulted in a higher purity of xanthophyll. Seasonal/spatial variation based on the purity and yield was also investigated to provide valuable information on optimal harvest time for these compounds.

The Marine Functional Foods Research Initiative (NutraMara project) is a programme for marine based functional food development established by the Marine Institute and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF). It is supported by funds provided under the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006–2013 (SSTI) and the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM), to establish a Marine Functional Foods Research Programme.

N. Heffernan et al.

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