Purification of Astaxanthin from Laminaria japonica by Ionic Liquid-based Monolithic Cartridge

An effective and accurate method was developed for the extraction of astaxanthin from Laminaria japonica with subsequent separation by ionic liquid-based monolithic cartridge. The optimized extraction conditions including extraction solvent(ethanol), extraction time(90 min) and ultrasonic power(75 W) were obtained by systematical investigation. Chromatographic analysis was performed on a C-18 column with ultraviolet(UV) detection at 476 nm, and a solution consisting of methanol/acetonitrile/H2O/dichloromethane(83:6:6:5, volume ratio) was used as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.7 mL/min. After ionic liquid-based monolithic solid phase extraction, 17.82 mu g/g astaxanthin was obtained from Laminaria japonica. This ionic liquid-based monolithic cartridge exhibits high affinity and selectivity for astaxanthin, and it can be potentially used as the stationary phase of high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC).