**9. Conclusions**

The research trends of fucoxanthin from 1928 to June 2021 were analyzed in the present study. A significant increase in fucoxanthin publications, especially in recent years, was observed. This trend corroborates with the increased market demand for fucoxanthin over recent years (Global Fucoxanthin Market 2020). According to the bibliometric analysis, the three most productive countries were Japan (379 articles), the United States (319 articles), and China (230 articles). The top productive institutions were led by Hokkaido University, Japan (110 articles), followed by the CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France (61 articles), and Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany (49 articles). The analysis revealed that the United States and Germany were significantly intertwined within the global research network. Miyashita, Kazuo from Japan was the most productive and impactful author on fucoxanthin research with 88 publications and a Scopus *h*-index of 50. Most of the fucoxanthin articles were published in the *Marine Drugs* journal (123 articles) and the agricultural and biological sciences category (27.0%). Based on the keyword analysis, the research concepts of fucoxanthin could be divided into four clusters: bioactivities of fucoxanthin, photosynthesis, optimization of process, and environment. The bioactivities of fucoxanthin were identified as the potential future direction as the number of these studies increased tremendously over the years. The current study revealed the research trends of fucoxanthin and offered valuable information (i.e., most productive author, institutions, country) to establish effective global collaborations in studying fucoxanthin. In addition, the current findings could be utilized as fundamental in constructing impactful fucoxanthin research to expand the scientific knowledge on this unique carotenoid.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Y.S.K., H.T.T. and F.M.Y.; methodology, Y.S.K.; software, Y.S.K. and H.T.T.; validation, Y.S.K. and F.M.Y.; formal Analysis, Y.S.K., H.T.T., M.F.N., N.A.S., A.R.O. and F.M.Y.; investigation, Y.S.K.; resources, F.M.Y.; data curation, Y.S.K. and H.T.T.; writing—original draft preparation, Y.S.K., H.T.T., N.A.I.N.M. and N.A.S.; writing—review and editing, Y.S.K., H.T.T., N.A.I.N.M., M.F.N., N.A.S., A.R.O. and F.M.Y.; visualization, Y.S.K.; supervision, N.A.S., A.R.O. and F.M.Y.; project administration, F.M.Y.; funding acquisition, F.M.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This study was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia under the HiCOE research gran<sup>t</sup> (grant no. 6369100), and SATREPS-COSMOS (JPMJSA 1509) Japan-Malaysia collaborative project.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** Technical assistance from staff and students of the Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Health and Therapeutics, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia is duly acknowledged.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
