Phycocyanin is a blue natural food colorant with multiple health benefits. Here we propose an efficient phycocyanin extraction method from Arthrospira platensis from Mexico. Three extraction methods were applied to optimize the extraction process, using water and buffer as solvents, with three pH values at two agitation times. The highest phycocyanin, 54.65 mg/g, was extracted from dry biomass with water as a solvent using an ultrasonication bar. The optimum condition of extraction was determined to be 1:50 biomass/solvent ratio for dry biomass, with the freeze/thaw method for 20 min repeated twice, and then agitated at 120 rpm for 24 h. The phycocyanin content was 48.88 mg/g biomass, with a purity of 0.47. For scalable phycocyanin productivity, the sonication method is recommended as there is no statistical difference. The phycocyanin stability was best at − 20 °C storage temperature at pH 7 for 35 days. Partial purification with ammonium sulfate was found to be suitable as a fractional precipitation method, first at 0–20% and then 20–65%, to get purity nearly 1. Total protein was found to be 55.52%, and total amino acids after phycocyanin extraction was 33%. The maximum phycocyanin yield using water as a solvent was the most interesting result regardless of the method used for extraction.
Spirulina is an edible algae and has a wide range of pharmaceutical applications in addition to its nutritional value. Isolation and identification of several Spirulina species were conducted in the western part of Mexico especially in the state of Jalisco. The purification strategy consisted of five optimized processing steps: 1) washing and centrifugation, 2) chemical treatment, 3) micromanipulation, 4) serial dilution, and 5) plating. Four species were isolated from different locations and two out of these four species were identified taxonomically up to the species level: Spirulina subsalsa and S. major. For short term conservation (30 days), the strains were maintained in liquid and solid agar medium at 10˚C and 4˚C. For medium term (few months), they were preserved in solid medium under a dried condition as agar flakes and for long term, cryopreservation was employed by using 5% and 10% DMSO, glycerol and methanol as osmoprotectants in liquid nitrogen. For short term preservation nearly 90% liquid and 100% agar recovered strains were viable after one month at both temperatures. In the case of the agar flakes, cells were viable after three months of conservation at room temperature. Cryopreservation did not give any suitable results after three months of conservation. Variable and two-step improved cryopreservation processes are now in progress for conservation.
Arthrospira (Spirulina) is a microalgae that has a unique set of biological characteristics which are very useful for a broad range of applications. Based on its worldwide requirements, this investigation was conducted to collect, isolate and identify the local Arthrospira strains in the central and western part of Mexico. We have successfully collected, isolated and identified (morphologically as well as molecularly) three Arthrospira strains from different regions in Mexico. Morphological studies were conducted by analyzing the size and shape of the helix, the spiral pattern, cell length and width with the help of light microscopy and for molecular analysis, the 16S rRNA and internally transcribed spacer (ITS, 16S-23 rRNA) gene partial sequence were used followed by phylogenetic analysis. The three species were completely different in their filament size and width whereas their ITS sequences were the same in size and more than 87 % similar in nucleotide sequence. The resulted morphological and phylogenetic analysis concluded that the three stains were identified as Arthrospira platensis. Inspite of their morphological variations and differences they were grouped genetically into one cluster along with the A. platensis of reported strains of Gene Bank database (NCBI). One of the isolated strains NPS-0, is probably the biggest Arthrospira strains ever reported and can be suitable for industrial scale biomass and protein production.
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