NatuRose Better in Sea Bream

Astaxanthin from Haematococcus (NatuRose) is significantly more effective at pigmenting the skin of Red Sea Bream, Pragus major, than synthetic (Guerin and Hokokawa, 2001). The authors of this study stated that “Pigmentation of fish fed 20 ppm of natural astaxanthin was equivalent to fish fed 40 ppm of synthetic astaxanthin.” The major differences between synthetic and natural microalgae derived astaxanthin are in chemical structure. Natural astaxanthin is esterified, or has fatty acids attached to the molecule, and it has a unique stereochemistry. Natural microalgae derived astaxanthin has a stereochemistry of 3S 3'S, while synthetic has a stereochemistry of 25% 3S 3'S, 25% 3R 3'R and 50% meso form. These chemical differences can be very significant in the results obtained from pigments.