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Partitioning Recovery of Natural Pigments from Spirulina platensis

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Abstract

In the last few decades, the recovery of high-added value compounds with high food potential using microalgae as feedstock has been one of the main challenges for both research and industry. This study provides a simple, affordable, and cost-saving approach for the selective recovery of C-phycocyanin (C-PC), chlorophyll a and carotenoids from Spirulina platensis biomass by using biocompatible and industrially approved solvents (such as CaCl2 and ethanol). The concentration and yield of each pigment in the liquid extract have been spectrophotometrically detected, whereas the decolorized protein-rich biomass has been analyzed by CIELab parameters. The most concentrated (566.4 μg/mL) and food-grade C-PC extract (purity index 0.7) was obtained by applying a biomass/solvent ratio (1:10) for the first round of extraction (20 min), followed by a second round at 1:5 using CaCl2 1.5% (w/v) aqueous solution. Additionally, the same trial enabled the production of the brightest decolorized protein-rich biomass (L* = 46.2), characterized by a yellow-orange tonality (h° values = 81.3°).

Highlights

  1. 1.

    Natural pigments from Spirulina platensis biomass have been separately extracted

  2. 2.

    Food grade high-purity C-phycocyanin has been recovered by CaCl2 1.5% w/v solution

  3. 3.

    Chlorophyll a and carotenoids have been subsequently extracted by ethanol

  4. 4.

    The colorimetric properties of spent decolorized biomass have been characterized

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Data Availability

The data may be made available upon request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, via S. Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo, Italy

    Ilaria Benucci, Manuela Flore & Marco Esti

Authors
  1. Ilaria Benucci
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  2. Manuela Flore
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  3. Marco Esti
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Contributions

IB and MF: formal analysis, data elaboration and writing original draft. IB and ME: experimental design planning, review and editing. ME: experimental design planning, review, and validation.

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Correspondence to Ilaria Benucci.

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Benucci, I., Flore, M. & Esti, M. Partitioning Recovery of Natural Pigments from Spirulina platensis. Plant Foods Hum Nutr 78, 557–565 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-023-01084-4

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