Astaxanthin: What it is, and How it is great for your health. 
Astaxanthin is a word any child would dread to hear during a spelling bee competition. Although the word may not be commonly encountered in your everyday speech, the health benefits are too great to not become familiar with it. It is a super antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory, a counter agent to the effects of the sun, and it is rich in vitamins and minerals. As a anti-inflammatory it has become well known for people tha suffer from joint pain and arthritis. If taken before one hour before exercise, it has almost miraculous results for people. However the more profound health benefits,are its free radical absorbing antioxidant properties. Haematococcus pluvialis is the Latin name for the micro-algae that is ever increasingly being mass produced, at first for fish food, but nowadays for humans. Only recently has it been acknowledged and FDA-approved beneficial for human consumption. Soon after FDA approval, Cyanotech, on the Big Island began to grow this amazing algae in their ponds at the natural energy labs pictured on the right. Grown in perfect conditions, with some of the cleanest water on the planet, it is easy to understand why this strain of the algae is considered the best. This super antioxidant is from the family of carotenoids, and is closely related to the vegetarian form of vitamin A, Beta-Carotene. Beta Carotene is an important anti-oxidant, but the simple molecular differences this algae has from Beta-Carotene prove to be staggering in comparison. The antioxidant properties is 10 times more powerful than Beta-Carotene. Below is a Picture of an Astaxanthin Molecule 
Although both antioxidants come from the same family of fat-soluble carotenoids, Beta-Carotene has a yellow orange color whereas the algae has a deep red color. The difference that stands out most, allowing the algae to outperform Beta-Carotene in free radical absorbing activity is within the molecular structure. If you look above, you can clearly see that the Astaxanthin Molecule contains two additional oxygen groups in each ring structure. Such a small change gives it a deep red color and classifies it as a xanthophyll, giving it ten more times the free radical scavenging power. The final difference between the two antioxidants is that the algae cannot be converted into Vitamin A by the body. To leave our page on Astaxanthin and go to our page on Spirulina, follow this link
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