Mass spectrometric comparison of ordinary and fully deuterated α- and β-carotene

The individual, deuterated, isomeric α- and β-carotenes were isolated from the green alga, Scenedesmus obliquus, cultivated in D₂O containing 99·7 to 99·8 atom percent deuterium. Mass spectroscopy showed that both the α- and β-deuterio-carotene preparations contained principally the fully deuterated pigment molecules (C₄₀D₅₆), small quantities of deuterated molecules with one proton (C₄₀D₅₅H) and yet smaller quantities of deuterated molecules with two protons (C₄₀D₅₄H₂). From statistical calculations the deuterio-carotene preparations also contained one to several isotopically-substituted deuterio-carotenes of each mass in the mass range 585 to 599 because of variation of the number of ¹³C and H atoms per molecule. The mass fragmentation of the deuterated pigments was analogous to that of the respective ordinary α- and β-carotene. It indicated that the protons in the C₄₀D₅₅H and C₄₀D₅₄H₂ molecules were distributed approximately randomly in various parts of the structure as in the terminal rings and in the ends and central portions of the polyene chain.