Green Biotech Network, College of Agricultural Sciences, São Paulo State University, Av. Universitária, 3780, CEP 18605-525 Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil.
Department of Chemistry, Federal University of São Carlos, Rod. Washington Luiz, s/n, CEP 13565-905 São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil.
Food Chem. 2023 Nov 30;427:136589. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136589. Epub 2023 Jun 21.
Corn grains are a major source of both the bioactive carotenoids zeaxanthin and lutein. Current methods to quantify these substances have some disadvantages related to sustainability and sample throughput. This work aimed to develop a green, efficient, rapid, and reproducible analytical method to quantify these xanthophylls in corn grains. Solvents recommended by the CHEM21 solvent selection guide were screened. The extraction by dynamic maceration and separation by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography were optimized by design of experiments. Then, the entire analytical procedure was validated and compared with procedures used for the same purpose, including an official one, and applied to different corn samples. The proposed method was demonstrated to be greener, equal to or more efficient, faster, and more reproducible than the comparative methods. The extraction step could be scaled up for industrial production of zeaxanthin- and lutein-enriched extracts, as it uses only compatible food grade ethanol and water.
玉米粒是生物活性类胡萝卜素玉米黄质和叶黄素的主要来源。目前定量这些物质的方法在可持续性和样品通量方面存在一些缺点。本工作旨在开发一种绿色、高效、快速和可重复的分析方法，用于定量玉米中的这些叶黄素。筛选了 CHEM21 溶剂选择指南推荐的溶剂。通过实验设计优化了动态浸提萃取和超高效液相色谱分离。然后，对整个分析过程进行了验证，并与相同目的的其他方法进行了比较，包括一种官方方法，并应用于不同的玉米样品。与比较方法相比，所提出的方法被证明更环保、等效或更高效、更快、更可重现。由于仅使用相容的食品级乙醇和水，因此提取步骤可以扩展到工业生产富含玉米黄质和叶黄素的提取物。
