Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of fucoxanthin and total pigment content was performed from brown, red and green macroalgal species (Fucus virsoides, Amphiroa rigida and Codium bursa) from the Adriatic Sea under different experimental conditions of time (15, 30 and 45 min), temperature (30, 50 and 70 °C) and solvent:solid ratio (10, 20 and 30 mL g−1). UAE was evaluated to determine the conditions influence on fucoxanthin yield (dominant pigment). The results showed that brown macroalga F. virsoides contained the highest fucoxanthin content (1.19–1.90 mg g−1 dry extract), followed by red macroalga A. rigida (0.29–0.90 mg g−1 dry extract) and green macroalga C. bursa (0.07–0.43 mg g−1 dry extract). Additionally, total concentrations of pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids) were determined by spectrophotometric analysis. Significant dependence on the applied extraction conditions for fucoxanthin and total pigments yields was revealed by the analysis of variance for the response surface models. Accordingly, the results showed differences for each macroalgal species in terms of the optimal UAE parameters. It can be concluded that UAE is successful method for the extraction of fucoxanthin from different macroalgal species, but the extraction optimization is crucial.
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Keywords: Brown; Red and green macroalgae; Ultrasound-assisted extraction; Fucoxanthin