Evaluation of fucoxanthin contents in seaweed biomass by vortex-assisted solid-liquid microextraction using high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection

Fucoxanthin is considered an important marine bioactive compound with biological properties with promising effects, namely on health. A simple and efficient analytical methodology is proposed for its quantification in seaweed biomass by using vortex-assisted solid-liquid microextraction (VASLME) followed by reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) photodiode array detection (PDA) analysis. This microextraction uses reduced quantities of sample (25 mg) and solvent (300 mu L of ethanol) to efficiently extract this high-valued xanthophyll, in a vortex time of 15 min. These extraction parameters were optimized performing a Central Composite Design (CCD) analysis, running 32 individual experiments. In turn, the method validation was assessed. The linearity of the method was confirmed (R-2=0.99998) in a concentration range from 12 to 3600 mu g.g(-1) dw. Also, good sensitivity and accuracy results were observed through the LOD (3.33 mu g.g(-1)), LOQ (10.09 mu g.g(-1)) and recovery (varied from 95 to 97%) assessments. Good precision was also verified, with intra-day variation within 2.0-3.3%, and inter-day within 1.0-3.8%. Matrix effect was also evaluated and an acceptable variation of 3.4% was found. The method applicability was confirmed by the analysis of 22 seaweed biomass samples and fucoxanthin content was found to vary from about 10 to 853 mu g.g(-1) dw. This method demonstrated a good performance and can be successfully implemented for a rapid, reliable and accurate screening of fucoxanthin in seaweed biomass.