Chemical Characteristics and Antioxidant Activity of Astaxanthin Extracted from Shrimp Residues Using Soybean Oil

Abstract

Shrimp residues generated by the seafood industrial processing are generally discarded in the environment without any further treatment, leading to a loss of nutritional value such as proteins, lipids, chitin, carotenoids, and minerals. This practice can lead to environmental problems due to the decomposition of these substances in the air. The objective of this study was to extract astaxanthin-rich materials from shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) industrial residue (WO) and smaller-scale residue meal (MO) in processing shrimp with soybean oil to evaluate their physicochemical characteristics, fatty acid content, and antioxidant potential. WO and MO were found to contain 27.48 and 33.34 µg g-1 of astaxanthin, respectively. The physicochemical properties of pigmented oils are established by legislation. The MO material showed significantly higher antioxidant activity compared to the soybean oil (control), especially when based on the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) test, which showed antioxidant activity of 0.484 and 0.264 µmol eq Trolox g-1 for the MO and soybean oil (control), respectively, possibly accompanying their respective astaxanthin contents in the MO sample. The pigmented oils from both the shrimp residues showed significant potential for being used in the food industry due to their affordability and their high antioxidant activity.