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Purification of protein from Arthrospira platensis using aqueous two-phase system associate with membrane separation process and evaluation of functional properties

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Abstract

Arthrospira platensis has stood out, especially due to its high protein content and its potential for food application. However, the exploration of protein concentration techniques of this microalgae still presents a great challenge. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the purification of A. platensis proteins by applying two different aqueous two-phase systems (ATS) composed of potassium phosphate and ethanol, and sodium citrate and ethanol, in addition to the association with membrane separation process (MSP), and the characterization of the fractions obtained. ATS under the optimised conditions (19% potassium phosphate and 30% ethanol, and 19.5% sodium citrate and 29% ethanol) resulted in 1.27 and 1.31 purity, and 77.45% and 78% recovery, respectively. The sodium citrate and ethanol ATS showed significantly greater purity; thus, the upper phase was submitted to MSP. The association of ATS and MSP increased the recovery (~ 87%) and the purity (1.5). The top phase of ATS showed higher protein content (61%) than the bottom (5.9%), confirming the protein preference to the top. When the MSP was evaluated, the protein was increased about 8.0%, and antioxidant activity was kept (42 and 40% to top phase and ATS/MSP concentrate, respectively). Emulsions formed by ATS top phase showed a lower droplet size (33.69 µm D4.3 and 6.02 µm D3.2), and a significantly lower degree of overall destabilization (0.04 × 10–6 s−1 kh and 3.54 × 10–3 s−1 ks) than those stabilized with bottom phase and MSP/ATS concentrate. ATS associated with membrane process showed efficiency in the concentration A. platensis protein, being able to be an alternative to be used in industrial systems.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank URI (Universidade Regional Integrada do Alto Uruguai e das Missões – Campus Erechim), CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) and FAPERGS (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul) by the infrastructure and financial support to development of this research.

Funding

The research was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001 and URI (Universidade Regional Integrada do Alto Uruguai e das Missões – Campus Erechim).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Engineering, URI Erechim, Av. Sete de Setembro 1621, Erechim, RS, 99700-000, Brazil

    Anne Luize Lupatini Menegotto, Ilizandra Aparecida Fernandes, Danieli Bucior, Bianca Pinto Balestieri, Juliana Steffens & Eunice Valduga

  2. University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Luciane Maria Colla

  3. Food Science and Technology Department, Facultad de Química, Universidad de La República, 11800, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Cecilia Abirached

  4. Center for Research On Colloidal Systems (NUESC), Institute of Research and Technology (ITP), Tiradentes University (UNITI), Aracaju, SE, 49032-490, Brazil

    Elton Franceschi

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  1. Anne Luize Lupatini Menegotto
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  2. Ilizandra Aparecida Fernandes
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  8. Juliana Steffens
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  9. Eunice Valduga
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Contributions

Anne Luize Lupatini Menegotto: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft. Ilizandra Aparecida Fernandes, Danieli Bucior, and Luciane Maria Colla: data curation. Cecilia Abirached: investigation, data curation, and formal analysis. Elton Franceschi: data curation and formal analysis. Juliana Steffens and Eunice Valduga: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, and formal analysis.

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Correspondence to Juliana Steffens.

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Menegotto, A.L.L., Fernandes, I.A., Bucior, D. et al. Purification of protein from Arthrospira platensis using aqueous two-phase system associate with membrane separation process and evaluation of functional properties. J Appl Phycol 33, 2967–2982 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-021-02505-0

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