Abstract

Fucoxanthin, a marine carotenoid widely distributed in brown algae, is known to possess various health promoting activities including anti-obesity effects in humans, but little is known about its kinetics partly because of its low bioavailability. We have developed a simple and reproducible protocol for quantifying system of human serum fucoxanthinol, a fucoxanthin metabolite, used LC-MS/MS multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), and have applied for clinical trial to study fucoxanthin absorption. We established a MRM channel for fucoxanthinol (m/z 617.5 for Q1 and 109.0 for Q3 channel) with a standard curve of R2 > 0.99 and an optimized pretreatment of human serum samples. Fucoxanthinol levels in sera obtained from subjects participating in clinical trials were then measured and a significant increase in the levels was observed at 4 hr after a single oral dose of 22 mg fucoxanthin using newly developed protocol. We propose that use of this protocol could enhance clinical investigation involving the bioavailability and functionality of fucoxanthinol.

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