Extraction and milking of astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis cultures. Issue 13 (5th June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Samorì, Chiara; Pezzolesi, Laura; Galletti, Paola; Semeraro, Margherita; Tagliavini, Emilio
• Is Part Of: Green chemistry. Volume 21:Issue 13(2019)
• Page Start: 3621
• Page End: 3628
• Publication Date: 2019-06-05
• Subjects: Environmental chemistry -- Industrial applications -- Periodicals; Environmental management -- Periodicals; 660
• DOI: 10.1039/c9gc01273g
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-9262

Abstract

Abstract : Natural astaxanthin can be recovered from Haematococcus pluvialis culture without any cell pre-treatment by using human-compatible solvents, and can be re-synthesized by cells if algae-compatible solvents are applied in a milking mode, avoiding a net biomass loss. Abstract : The microalga Haematococcus pluvialis is capable of accumulating natural astaxanthin when subjected to external stress and shifted towards a red-cyst phase, characterized by a robust and multilayered cell wall. In the present study, still-unexplored solvents were applied for extracting astaxanthin from H. pluvialis, directly from algae culture and without any pre-treatment of the cells. Among the tested solvents, some of them ( e.g. ethyl acetate and 2-methyltehydrofuran) gave excellent astaxanthin recovery (>80%) in a short time (30 min) and others ( e.g. isoamyl acetate, well known as a human-compatible solvent and already in use as a food additive) gave an astaxanthin recovery close to 90% in 1 hour and thus they are exploitable in the natural astaxanthin market. Almond oil is proved to be able to extract astaxanthin and keep H. pluvialis alive, without affecting the algal photosynthetic activity, providing the possibility to milk and regeneratively cultivate H. pluvialis and avoid an uneconomical loss of biomass.