HPLC Analysis of Pigment Compositions

Analyses of pigment compositions were performed using an Alliance e2695 HPLC system (Waters, Milford, CT, USA) equipped with a 2998 Photodiode Array (PDA) detector (Waters, Milford, CT, USA) and a Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm, Agilent, Palo Alto, CA, USA). The temperature of the column oven was set at 30 °C. A mixture of H₃PO₄ solution (pH 2.5, phase A) and acetonitrile (phase B) were used as the mobile phase using the following gradient program: 0 min, 80% A, 20% B; 25 min, 20% A, 80% B; 35 min, 20% A, 80% B; 36 min, 80% A, 20% B; 41 min, 80% A, 20% B. The PDA was set at 200–600 nm, and the flow rate of the mobile phase was 0.8 mL/min [21 (link)].