Carotenoids consist of the most abundant class of organic pigments in nature. They are present in the photosynthetic organisms, fungi, bacteria, algae and in all classes of animals from protozoa to human. They include an array of substances that address different biological properties such as enhancing immune functions; reduce the risk of developing degenerative diseases and stimulating gap junctions inter cellular communications. Shrimp waste is one of the most important natural sources of carotenoids. Here, it is proposed an alternative procedure to extract them by proteolytic hydrolysis from the waste (heads) of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Proteases of the animal themselves were used instead of commercially available protease Alcalase^â. Previously, it was established that the enzymatic activity of the shrimp crude extract on azocasein was twice higher than that of the Alcalase^â. The shrimp heads were minced with distilled water and incubated at 40^oC for 2h (autolysis). Then, the temperature was increased to 100^oC for 10 min and centrifuged at 10.000 x g for 10 min. Carotenoids were recovered by ethanol extraction from the precipitate as demonstrated by spectrophotometry (470nm). There was no difference in the amount of carotenoids extracted by this procedure compared with that employing Alcalase^â. Astaxanthin was found to be the major carotenoid in the ethanol extract of Litopenaeus vannamei which was confirmed by chromatographic methods TLC, HPLC and spectral fine structure by UV – visible spectrophotometer.