Abstract

Spirulina (cyanobacterium) posses a wide range of components useful in food and pharmaceutical industries. Pigments are intracellular compounds whose extraction involves cell disruption. Traditional extraction methods have several drawbacks like slow, time consuming utilize large quantity of solvents and less yield. So a systemic and economical approach was performed for maximum extraction of pigments using ultrasound-assistance. Phycocyanin concentration in the extract was calculated spectrophotometrically by measuring the absorbance at 615 and 652 nm. The purity of phycocyanin is evaluated based on the absorbance ratio of A620/A280. The optimized results obtained from both the solvents were analyzed. The result shows extraction with 1% calcium chloride solution of volume 45.27 ml, time 9.3 min and amplitude 79.72% gave the maximum yield of phycocyanin (0.20244 mg/ml). The maximum phycocyanin purity ratio of 0.62 was obtained in calcium chloride extract. The crude protein content of extracted samples has also been estimated by Kjeldahl method and it was found to vary from 18.23 to 63.63%, the highest being in distilled water extract.

Key words: Spirulina, phycocyanin.