A CHIRAL HPLC METHOD FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS SEPARATION OF CONFIGURATIONAL ISOMERS OF THE PREDOMINANT CIS TRANS FORMS OF ASTAXANTHIN/

We report an HPLC method that allows the simultaneous separation of co nfigurational isomers of the predominant cis/trans forms of astaxanthi n. The configurational isomers of the all-trans-, and most of the conf igurational isomers of the 9-cis-, 13-cis- and 15-cis-astaxanthin were separated on a Sumichiral OA-2000 column, which is manufactured and p acked in Japan with a Pirkle covalent D-phenylglycine chiral stationar y phase (CSP). The large separation of the cis isomers from the all-tr ans isomers that we report here ensure the suitability of this method for the routine determination of the ratio of the configurational isom ers of all-trans-astaxanthin.