Abstract
Eighteen species of red fishes of marine origin were examined as to the carotenoids and their concentrations in the skin tissues.
1. A wide variation in total content of carotenoids can be seen among different species of red fishes. Astaxanthin is the most predominant component which consists almost entire part of the pigments in the skins of the fishes, such as Beryx splendens, Gephyroberyx japonicus, Sebastes baramenuke, and Sebastes flammeus. The concentration of astaxanthin is found not lower than 50% of total amount of carotenoids even in the species which are considered poor in the content of astaxanthin.
2. In most species of red fish examined, tunaxanthin occurs coexistently with astaxanthin. The skin coloration of red fishes will depend largely upon the presence of these two major carotenoids.
3. The composition of carotenoids pigments in the same species of fish may be consistent, though a small quantity of violaxanthin-like pigment and some unidentified ones can be occurring in many cases.
