Teores de β-caroteno em suplementos e biomassa de Spirulina

• Autor(a) principal: Alencar, Daniel Barroso de
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Pires-Cavalcante, Kelma Maria dos Santos, Saboya, Jefferson Pablo de Souza, Sousa, Márcia Barbosa de, Farias, Wladimir Ronald Lobo, Saker-Sampaio, Silvana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFLA
• Texto Completo: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-70542011000200021; http://repositorio.ufla.br/jspui/handle/1/7392
• topic: Cianobactéria; Beta caroteno; Suplemento alimentar; Cyanobacteria; Beta carotene; Food supplement

Spirulina is a cyanobacterium that has been used for several centuries due to its nutritional and medicinal properties. This work has evaluated the contents of β-carotene both in Spirulina commercialized as food supplement, purchased from natural product shops, and in S. platensis reared under laboratory conditions. Some carotenoids exhibit pro-vitamin A activity, and β-carotene presents the greatest biological activity. β-Carotene of microalgae was extracted in 90% aqueous methanol. These extracts were saponified and partitioned in n-hexane. Chromatographic analyses were carried out in a Spherisorb column S5 ODS 2 (4.6 x 250 mm), with a mobile phase of methanol:tetrahydrofuran (90:10, v/v) delivered at 2 mL min-1 and chromatograms registered at 450 nm absorbance. Food supplement made with Spirulina presented low content of β-carotene. The highest content of β-carotene was detected in S. platensis cultivated under 24º C with photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark. Considering its pro-vitamin activity, retinol equivalent (RE) was calculated from β-carotene to determine whether alga material could be claimed as an useful or an excellent source of the vitamins A.