Overview of Lutein.docVIP

Overview of Lutein 　　【Abstract】Natural Lutein is one of the important yellow carotenoid at the same time is an important colorants and nutrients. In this paper, the overview of lutein industry were briefly reviewed, also introduced the function and application of lutein. Natural lutein is a natural pigment with a huge prospect of application in the future. 　　【Key words】Lutein; Carotenoid; Colorant; Antioxidant; ARMD 　　1　Introduction of lutein 　　Carotenoids are yellow, red and orange pigments which are widely distributed in nature. Carotenoids are a class of terpenoid pigments with a 40-carbon backbone and a large conjugated double-bond system, which not only make carotenoids have characteristic colour, but also endow them with the function as antioxidants in disease prevention. 　　Lutein is a more polar kind of carotenoids, which mainly extracted from marigold, a kind economic crop widely cultivated in China. According to statistics, China product 800 million grams lutein, accounted for 85% of world output. So China is the biggest producing area of natural lutein. 　　Lutein insoluble in water, but soluble in most organic solvents like ethyl acetate, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methylene chloride and so on. Lutein extracted from marigold mainly included marigold extract ointment (10%-25%), lutein ester powder (50%-70%), lutein crystal (above 80%). 　　Lutein is normally obtained from the petals of marigold after an extraction process by organic solvent which yields oleoresins with varying concentrations of lutein that range from 10% to 50%, mostly in the ester form, which is roughly a half if free lutein is considered. These concentrates are the product most commonly used for the formulation of food supplements. Lutein can be further purified by processes that involve saponification, further concentration, and a final recrystallization to its crystalline form. Crystalline lutein is, nevertheless, difficult to handle and, hence, is commonly sold as suspensions