*3.1. Chemicals*

SO (fucoxanthin-5KM composed of 79% food oil, 20% brown seaweed lipid and 1% tocopherol) containing 5% fucoxanthin was purchased from Oriza Oil & Fat Chemical Co., Ltd. (Aich, Ichinomiya, Japan). Monocaprin was prepared by Taiyo Kagaku Co., Ltd. (Mie, Yokkaichi, Japan). Other chemicals were obtained from FUJIFILM Wako Chemical Co. (Osaka, Japan).
