Determination of chlorophylls and carotenoids of marine phytoplankton: separation of chlorophyll <i>a</i> from divinylchlorophyll <i>a</i> and zeaxanthin from lutein

Abstract

A rapid reverse-phase HPLC method is presented for the identification and quantification of most of the phytoplankton pigments. This method yields the resolution of divinyl-chlorophyll a and chlorophyll a, as well as the partial resolution of lutein and zeaxanthin, and of divinyl-chlorophyll b and chlorophyll b. In addition, chlorophylls c1,2 and c3 are well resolved. The analysis time for one sample is 20 mm, which makes this method particularly suited when large numbers of samples have to be processed.