Revista Europea de Biología Experimental Acceso abierto

Abstracto

Cultivation of two species of Spirulina (Spirulina platensis and Spirulina platensis var lonar) on sea water medium and extraction of C-phycocyanin

Murugan T. and Rajesh R.

Spirulina has been cultivated worldwide for their commercially valuable products like crude protein, bio-pigments and other food supplements. Commercial Spirulina Producers tired to cultivate it in cheap natural resources and thus reduce the cost of production and environmental pollutions. In this experiment there were two species of Spirulina viz., Spirulina platensis (filamentous type) and Spirulina platensis var lonar has been tried to cultivate on cultivation medium formulated with sea water. The cultivation was carried out for a period of 15 days, at 27°C and at constant light intensity of 1.7 klux. The physico-chemical characteristics of seawater were analyzed before media formulation as per the standard protocols provided by American Public Health Association (APHA-1989). The growth of the microalgae was monitored by Direct Microscopic Count (DMC), Optical Density (OD) at 560nm and Biomass estimation. The generation time of the two micro-algae and their C-phycocyanin yield in control as well as seawater media were also determined. The results revealed that the sea water medium forms better alternative natural cheap resource to cultivate the Spirulina. As for as biomass yield is concern, the Spirulina platensis (filamentous type) provided increased yield (2.72g/l) when compared to the control (2.48g/l) (Zarrouk) medium.