抄録
Carotenoid pigments in two species of lobsters, Scyllarides squamosus (=Scyllarus sieboldi) (I) and Parribacus antarcticus (=p. ursus-major) (II), were analyzed and the results were compared with those of Panulirus japonicus (III) reported in a previous paper. The carapace of I, II and III were almost similar in carotenoid content, astaxanthin comprising nearly half of the total content with such carotenoids as β-carotene, echinenone, canthaxanthin, phoenicoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin being relatively minor. However, I and III which are taxonomically closely related species also contained 4-keto-zeaxanthin and cynthiaxanthin, which accounted for about 30% and 10% of the total carotenoid content respectively (4-keto-zeaxanthin=30%; cynthiaxanthin=10%), while II entirely lacked both pigments.
In the eggs, the carotenoids were found only in the free form and their carotenoid patterns were similar to those in the carapace of the respective species examined. In I and III, the main carotenoid was astaxanthin which comprised about 40% of the total while in II, it was β-carotene (40%). β-carotene was the dominant carotenoid in the hepatopancreas of I, II and III, comprising 80 to 90% of the total. 4-Keto-zeaxanthin was identified in I and III in spite of the fact that its occurrence in crustacea has never been reported, possibly because its separation from astaxanthin during analysis is difficult.
