HomeFuji NewsletterStudy ReferencesAssay MethodPatents

About Astaxanthin
The radical defense behind the cell

Natural Astaxanthin from the microalgae, haematococcus pluvialis, is a natural carotenoid found in abundance from arctic marine environments to common fresh water rock pools throughout the world. Astaxanthin is what gives the pink and red color to salmon, shrimp and lobster. However, animals depend on their diet to obtain astaxanthin and other carotenoids since they cannot produce carotenoids themselves. The most abundant source of astaxanthin in nature is haematococcus pluvialis, which will accumulate astaxanthin in lipid vesicles during periods of nutrient deficiency and environmental stresses. Because haematococcus often grows in places that are exposed to intense sunlight during its dormant phase astaxanthin functions to protect the cell nucleus against free radicals generated by UV radiation that would otherwise cause damage to its DNA and peroxidise energy reservoirs.

Fuji Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. produces the highest purity astaxanthin in the world from haematococcus pluvialis through its two subsidiaries, BioReal, Inc. (USA) and AstaReal AB (Sweden).

BioReal, Inc.
Located on the paradise island of Maui, BioReal utilizes the proprietary, state of the art technology we call the "BioDome" to cultivate and grow the naturally occurring microalgae, haematococcus pluvialis for the natural production of astaxanthin.

The BioDome advantage

• contamination control
• purity improvement
• environmentally friendly
• astaxanthin yield improvement

BioReal (Sweden) AB
Located in Sweden, BioReal (Sweden) AB was the first company in the world to commercialize a supplement containing natural astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis, which was launched in the year 1995. Also to date, BioReal has completed more clinical studies with natural astaxanthin than any other company providing an in-depth understanding of the benefits of astaxanthin as well a strong sense of safety surrounding the use of it.

BioReal utilizes a fully enclosed proprietary photobioreactor system to grow, harvest and dry the microalgae haematococcus pluvialis under carefully controlled hygienic conditions.

Antioxidant - Cell Membrane protection
Astaxanthin has been found to be a very potent lipid soluble antioxidant through in vitro and ex vivo studies. It has been shown to be 1000 times and 550 times more effective than vitamin E (-tocopherol) concerning lipid peroxidation and singlet oxygen quenching respectively. Astaxanthin is also superior to many other antioxidants because of the unique role it may play in protecting the cell membrane because of its unique chemical structure and orientation within the living cell. Figure 1 shows astaxanthin's unique ability to span through the double layer cell membrane. For example, -carotene resides inside the bilipid membrane and vitamin C resides outside the bilipid membrane only. Whereas, the astaxanthin molecule is exposed both in and outside of the cell giving overall better protection. In addition, it can also function as a bridge by transporting trapped free radicals to the aqueous (polar) regions of the cell, thus making them available to water soluble antioxidants.

Reference
(1) S. Goto et al. / Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1512 (2001) 251-258

Figure 1: Astaxanthin orientation in the animal cell membrane compared to B-carotene and Vitamin C.