Improving the Thermal and Oxidative Stability of Food-Grade Phycocyanin from Arthrospira platensis by Addition of Saccharides and Sugar Alcohols

Abstract

The water-soluble pigment protein phycocyanin (C-PC) from cyanobacteria Arthrospira sp. is an excellent natural food colorant and nutritional supplement with a brilliant blue color. However, C-PC is highly unstable, especially at high temperatures and when exposed to oxidative stress. The lack of simple and economical methods for improving the stability of C-PC greatly limits the application of this functional protein in the food industry. This study investigated the effect of adding saccharides (glucose, mannose, galactose, and maltose) and sugar alcohols (mannitol and maltitol) on the stability of food-grade C-PC extracted from Arthrospira platensis; the relevant reaction kinetics were also analyzed. The results revealed that glucose, mannose, mannitol, galactose, and maltose could effectively improve the thermal stability of C-PC. This improvement was positively correlated with the concentration of the additives and decreased sharply when the temperature exceeded 60 °C. Furthermore, the results also revealed the instability of C-PC when subjected to oxidative stress and the effectiveness of glucose, mannose, mannitol, and maltose in preventing the oxidative degradation of C-PC. In general, this study demonstrates that glucose, mannose, mannitol, and maltose are promising compounds for promoting the thermal and oxidative stability of C-PC, providing an economical and effective method for C-PC preservation.

Plant extracted natural fluorescent protein C-phycocyanin doped in PVA nanofibers for advanced apparel application

“…In comparison to same pure PVA nanofibers, the diameter decreases when CP (dye) is added to the polymer solution. We reason that the water-soluble nature of C-phycocyanin might be responsible to reduce the polymer concentration [34]. Hence, the results confirm the presence of the dye protein in part with PVA dope dyed nanofibers.…”

“…We hypothesize water-soluble nature of CP could be responsible for the diameter decrease. It may be due to water-soluble nature of CP which ultimately reduces the polymer concentration [34,36]. These results attest to strong interaction between dye and the nanofibers displaying blue color gradient with increasing concentration.…”

High purity grade phycocyanin recovery by decupling cell lysis from the pigment extraction – an innovative approach

“…AS solutions are commonly used in phycobiliprotein separation/purification processes by saltingout (İlter et al, 2021;Huo et al, 2022) or column (Chen et al, 2018) and membrane (Lauceri et al 2019) chromatography (as eluents), downstream of the extraction process. In the process presented here, AS solutions were used upstream of the extraction procedure.…”

Stability of high internal‐phase emulsions prepared from phycocyanin and small‐molecule sugars

“…17 It has been shown that carbohydrates, especially small molecule sugars (SMS) such as sucrose, have a positive effect on PC stabilization. [18][19][20] Meanwhile, glycosylation of proteins and thus enhancement of their emulsification properties is a common means to improve the stability of emulsions. 21,22 Tian et al reported that the complex glycosylation of PC with mannose by ultrasonic pretreatment significantly enhanced its emulsion and antioxidant activity.…”

“…Sugars are commonly used as protein stabilizers in the food industry 17 . It has been shown that carbohydrates, especially small molecule sugars (SMS) such as sucrose, have a positive effect on PC stabilization 18‐20 . Meanwhile, glycosylation of proteins and thus enhancement of their emulsification properties is a common means to improve the stability of emulsions 21,22 .…”