Physiological Activity of Astaxanthin and its Inclusion Complex with Cyclodextrin

Abstract In vitro biological activities such as antioxidant, whitening, anti-hangover and anticancer activities were evaluated. The antioxidant activities of astaxanthin and H. pluvialis extract were significantly higher than that of α-tocopherol when the antioxidant activities were determined as xanthine oxidase inhibition, hydroxyl radical scavenging and DPPH radical scavenging. The whitening effect of H. pluvialis extract was about two times as kojic acid. H. pluvialis extract indicated an anticancer activity on a cervical cancer cell line. Astaxanthin showed anti-hangover effect of 1.5 times as jiguja extract. The anti-hangover effect of the inclusion complex (As-β-CD) was about 1.2 times of jiguja extract. And, the inclusion complex of Haematococcus pluvialis (H.p.-β-CD) showed almost the sam