NATURAL PRODUCT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ›› 2010, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (6): 1085-1087.

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Thermal Stability and Decomposition Kinetic of Astaxanthin

YUAN Chao1* ,JIN Zheng-yu2   

  1. 1School of Biotechnology and Food, Anyang Institute of Technology, Anyang 455000, China; 2School of Food Science and Technology, Southern Yangtze University, Wuxi 214036, China
  • Received:2009-02-13 Online:2011-01-10 Published:2011-10-19

Abstract:

The thermal stability of astaxanthin was studied by thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis and the start decomposition temperature of astaxanthin is about 250 ℃. The thermal decomposition kinetics was investigated, which suggested that the activation energy EA is 121.14 kJ/mol and the pre-exponential factor is 3.25×108/min. The existence of oxygen had little effect for the decomposition of astaxanthin, but some high temperature residues were created.

Key words: astaxanthin, thermal stability, decomposition kinetics, thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis, oxygen