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The extraction of polyhydroxylated naphthoquinone (PHNQ) pigments from the shell and spines of the New Zealand sea urchin Evechinus chloroticus was evaluated using six different macroporous resins as an alternative to using organic solvent extraction alone. Four of the resins evaluated in this study (D4006, D4020, D101 and NKA-9) provided the best extraction of PHNQ pigments in terms of the overall adsorption and desorption of E. chloroticus PHNQ pigments from the resins. Organic solvents alone had a higher yield of PHNQs than the resins. The PHNQ composition was characterised by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode‐array detection and mass spectrometry. Five PHNQ compounds (spinochromes E, B, C, A and echinochrome A), and three aminated PHNQ compounds (spinamine E, echinamines A and B) were identified. The pigments were found to be prone to degradation on exposure to light, with the aminated PHNQ pigments being the least stable.

Mirabiquinone [7,5′-anhydroethylidene-6,6′-bis(2,3,7-trihydroxynaphthazarin)], a new unsymmetrical binaphthoquinone, was isolated from the sea urchin Scaphechinus mirabilis along with the known symmetrical binaphthoquinones ethylidene-6,6′-bis(2,3,7-trihydroxynaphthazarin) and 7,7′-anhydroethylidene-6,6′-bis(2,3,7-trihydroxynaphthazarin). The structure of mirabiquinone was established using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HSQC and HMBC data, along with a spectroscopic analysis of its pentamethoxy derivative. Mirabiquinone and the symmetrical binaphthoquinones demonstrated excellent scavenging of the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical.