Abstract
Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of astaxanthin and other carotenoids from Haematococcus pluvialis was carried out, for several experimental conditions, using a semi-continuous apparatus. The microalga was previously freeze-dried and ground with a ball mill. The effects of pressure (200 and 300 bar), temperature (40 and 60 °C), degree of crushing, as well as the use of ethanol as a co-solvent (10%) on the extraction efficiency were assessed. Organic solvent extractions, using acetone, were also carried out in a vortex, on ground cells mixed with very small glass beads. Supercritical extraction from the completely crushed alga was compared with acetone and the highest recovery of carotenoids (92%) was obtained at the pressure of 300 bar and the temperature of 60 °C, using ethanol as a co-solvent.
The extraction recovery increased with the pressure at 60 °C. On the other hand, the increase in temperature, at 300 bar, led to a slight improvement. The main carotenoid of Haematococcus pluvialis is the esterified astaxanthin (about 75%). Other carotenoids present are lutein, astaxanthin (free), β-carotene and canthaxanthin. All of them were recovered through supercritical fluid extraction with values higher than 90%, with the exception of canthaxanthin (about 85%), at a pressure of 300 bar and a temperature of 60 °C.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by FCT (Portugal), Project POCTI/MAR/15237/1999. B. Nobre and F. Marcelo thank FCT (Portugal) for the research grants. R. Passos thanks CAPES (Brasil) for the research grant. The authors thank Graça Conceição for microalgal biomass production.
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Nobre, B., Marcelo, F., Passos, R. et al. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of astaxanthin and other carotenoids from the microalga Haematococcus pluvialis . Eur Food Res Technol 223, 787–790 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-006-0270-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-006-0270-8