What is astaxanthin?
The pigment that makes lobster, shrimp, and salmon red. Astaxanthin is believed to be one of the most potent antioxidants in nature due to its unique conjugated (alternating double and single) double bonds.
"Astaxanthin complexing with crustacyanin endows lobsters with their dark blue camouflage, but crustacyanin denatures when cooked, releasing astaxanthin, which is orange in its unbound form. Astaxanthin is present as a negatively charged enolate ion."
-S Begum et al, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015
