Determination of astaxanthin stereoisomers and colour attributes in flesh of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as a tool to distinguish the dietary pigmentation source.

The presence of carotenoids in animal tissue reflects their sources along the food chain. Astaxanthin, the main carotenoid used for salmonid pigmentation, is usually included in the feed as a synthetic product. However, other dietary sources of astaxanthin such as shrimp or krill wastes, algae meal or yeasts are also available on the market. Astaxanthin possesses two identical asymmetric atoms at C-3 and C-3' making possible three optical isomers with all-trans configuration of the chain: 3S,3'S, 3R,3'S, and 3R,3'R. The distribution of the isomers in natural astaxanthin differs from that of the synthetic product. This latter is a racemic mixture, with a typical ratio of 1:2:1 (3S,3'S:3R,3'S:3R,3'R), while astaxanthin from natural sources has a variable distribution of the isomers deriving from the different biological organism that synthesized it. The high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis of all-trans isomers of astaxanthin was performed in different pigment sources, such as red yeast Phaffia rhodozyma, alga meal Haematococcus pluvialis, krill meal and oil, and shrimp meal. With the aim to investigate astaxanthin isomer ratios in flesh of fish fed different carotenoid sources, three groups of rainbow trout were fed for 60 days diets containing astaxanthin from synthetic source, H. pluvialis algae meal and P. rhodozyma red yeast. Moreover, the distribution of optical isomers of astaxanthin in trout purchased on the Italian market was investigated. A characteristic distribution of astaxanthin stereoisomers was detected for each pigment sources and such distribution was reproduced in the flesh of trout fed with that source. Colour values measured in different sites of fillet of rainbow trout fed with different pigment sources showed no significant differences. Similarly, different sources of pigment (natural or synthetic) produced colour values of fresh fillet with no relevant or significant differences. The coefficient of distance computed amongst the feed ingredient and the trout fillet astaxanthin stereoisomers was a useful tool to identify the origin of the pigment used on farm.

Racemization kinetics of aspartic acid in fish material under different conditions of moisture, pH, and oxygen pressure.

The racemization kinetics of aspartic acid in heat-treated whole herring have been studied under conditions of treatment comparable to those that may occur in processing of fish meal. D-Aspartic acid content in the samples has been measured by RP-HPLC with precolumn automatic derivatization. The major parameters affecting the rate of racemization of aspartic acid k(Asp) have been demonstrated to be temperature (elevation of temperature from 95 to 120 degrees C resulted in an increase of k(Asp) from 0.46 to 3.39x10(-3) min(-1)), moisture of the raw material (reduction of the moisture content of the raw material from 80 to 15% lowered k(Asp) measured at 95 degrees C from 0.46 to 0.06x10(-3) min(-1)), and to a lesser extent, pH (k(Asp) at 95 degrees C was lowered from 0.46 to 0.37x10(-3) min(-1) following a decrease of pH from 7.0 to 4.0). No significant effects on the racemization rate of aspartic acid was observed for reducing the oxygen pressure to 0.8%. The results from the present study show that the content of D-aspartic acid in fish material is a function of heat exposure and may be used to predict the thermal history of fish meal.

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of polyamines in milk as their 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl derivatives using a column-switching technique.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of polyamines in milk is milk is described. Polyamines were extracted in perchloric acid and derivatized with 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl chloride (FMOC-Cl). The excess of reagent was reacted with aspartic acid before the analysis on a column-switching system. Linearity of derivatization was calculated for each amine and the coefficient of regression ranged from 0.994 to 0.999. Chromatographic separation of FMOC-polyamines was achieved with a gradient elution programme of water-acetonitrile. The correlation coefficients of the standard curves in the concentration range from 0.5 to 5 nmol ml-1 were higher than 0.991. The repeatability of the method, expressed as R.S.D. for each polyamines ranged from 3.0 to 8.6%. The percent mean recoveries at 1 nmol ml-1 spiking level were 49 +/- 3, 58 +/- 5, 61 +/- 5 and 48 +/- 4 for putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine and spermine, respectively. The limit of detection, calculated on the basis of three times signal-to-noise ratio, was 50 pmol ml-1 for each polyamine.