Patent ID: 8007838

Claim:
A fucoxanthin-containing dietary supplement extracted from Undaria pinnatifida by a process comprising: (a) providing freeze-dried flakes of Undaria pinnatifida containing fucoxanthin, said flakes having a range of particle sizes; (b) reducing the particle sizes of said flakes by converting them into a powder having a substantially homogeneous particle size; (c) forming a mixture by combining a quantity of said powder with an effective amount of a solvent selected from the group consisting of ethanol, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, ethylene dichloride and methylene dichloride, whereby at least a portion of fucoxanthin contained in said powder is extracted into the solvent; wherein the extraction is carried out at approximately 10°C.-70°C. for approximately 3 hours in the presence of a continuously circulating solvent flow (d) separating the solvent containing the extracted fucoxanthin from said (e) subjecting the fucoxanthin-containing solvent to a distillation under a reduced pressure to remove at least a portion of said solvent, thus forming a syrupy fucoxanthin-containing mass having a solids content of from about 10 to about 99% by weight; (f) combining said fucoxanthin-containing mass with a sufficient amount of an organic non-polar solvent having a Polarity Index <6, selected from the group consisting of butanol, chloroform, ethyle acetate and hexane wherein the organic non-polar solvent is able to substantially dissolve the mass and form a solvent solution containing said fucoxanthin, and whereupon the solvent solution is purified by filtering out any remaining insoluble material which does not go into said solvent solution and discarding said insoluble material from the solvent solution; (g) concentrating said solvent solution by removing substantially all of said solvent to produce a dried mass containing fucoxanthin; (h) grinding and sifting the dried mass containing fucoxanthin to obtain particles measuring approximately 60-100 mesh in size, said particles containing at least 10% by weight of fucoxanthin; and wherein said supplement contains less than about 1 ppm iodine and less than about 1 ppm arsenic, and wherein the fucoxanthin contained in said supplement exhibits a shelf life of at least about 2 years without significant degradation.