The monitoring of the peaks was carried out at 430, 450
and 486 nm and the flow and sample volumes drawn were set at
1 ml/min and 20 μl, respectively. Criteria for pigment identification
included retention time, UV spectra at 450 nmusing diode array detector
compared to carotenoid standards (lutein, β-carotene, astaxanthin and
zeaxanthin standards; Sigma-Aldrich, USA) and absorbance maxima
from spectra as described by Meléndez-Martínez et al.