n
Identification of β -carotene According to HPLC analysis (Fig. 2A and 2B), with regard to the carotenoids extracted from Rhodosporidium babjevae JI-1, the elution time of the β - c a r o t e n e s t a n d a r d w a s 1 9 . 7 m i n a n d t h e p i g m e n t o b t a i n e d f r o m t h e e x t r a c t w a s 1 9 . 8 m i n . S i n c e t h e y e l u t e d at nearly the same time, the extracted pigment was possibly β -carotene. β -Carotene was separated from the extract using an open column (Fig. 2C). Purified β -carotene was compared with standard β -carotene by measuring its molecular weight using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) (Fig. 3). The m/z (mass-to-charge ratio) values of both the standard β -carotene and the purified β -carotene were 537.55. This value was very similar to the m/z value