Cultivation of Spirulina (Arthrospira) platensis in low cost seawater based medium for extraction of value added pigments

摘要

A low cost medium using seawater and prawn hatchery waste water was developed for the cultivation of an economically important cyanobacterium Spirulina (Arthrospira) platensis. Quality of the biomass produced was evaluated on the basis of protein and pigment contents (phycocyanin, chlorophyll-a and total carotenoids). A three step process was used for the downstream processing of the biomass produced to obtain a value added pigment phycocyanin. It is evident from the results that there was a negligible effect on growth rate (3-14% decline) in the amended seawater medium as compared to the prescribed growth medium. Phycocyanin content was also comparable (50.9 +/- 0.48 mg/g for amended seawater and 50.95 +/- 0.47 mg/g for prescribed medium). Purity of phycocyanin (A(620)/A(280)) was in the range of 3.08-3.27 which corresponds to superior quality colorant grade phycocyanin. This investigation provides baseline information about utilization of seawater for biomass production of S.platensis, and also for further downstream processing of biomass for the recovery of high purity phycocyanin.