*3.1. General*

The UV-Visible (UV-VIS) spectra were recorded with a Hitachi U-2001 in diethyl ether (Et2O). 

The positive ion FAB-MS spectra were recorded using a JEOL JMS-700 110A mass spectrometer with 

*m*-nitrobenzyl alcohol as a matrix. The 1H-NMR (500 MHz) spectra were measured with a Varian UNITY INOVA 500 spectrometer in CDCl3 with TMS as an internal standard. HPLC was performed on a Shimadzu LC-6AD with a Shimadzu SPD-6AV spectrophotometer set at 470 nm. The column used was a 250 × 10 mm i.d., 10 ΐm Cosmosil 5C18-II (Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan) with acetone:hexane (3:7, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The optical purity of astaxanthin was analyzed by chiral HPLC using a 300 × 8 mm i.d., 5 ΐm Sumichiral OA-2000 (Sumitomo Chemicals, Osaka, Japan) with *n*-hexane/CHCl3-ethanol (48:16:0.8, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min [18]. 
