Carotenoids extraction from the microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum

• Autor(a) principal: Figueiredo, Bruna Flávia Henriques Tavares
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/19136
• topic: Extracção química; Carotenoides; Microalgas

Microalgae have been attracting a crescent attention regarding either the potential use of their biomass or the wide range of compounds of interest that they have in their constitution, which can be extracted and applied in several fields of industry, namely carotenoids and in particular fucoxanthin.. Fucoxanthin is a photosynthetic pigment, with numerous applications and benefits, namely in the human healthrelated domains, due to its high antioxidant properties, essential in the prevention and treatment of several diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Hereupon, the development of a feasible route for the production of carotenoids rich in fucoxanthin which could allow its commercialization is of utmost scientific, industrial and even social relevance. The Phaeodactylum tricornutum species is being reported as a relevant producer of fucoxanthin. Still, there are no economic feasible extraction methods for the carotenoids, and in particular fucoxanthin, considering their efficient obtainment with high purity levels. Thus, this work is aiming at the development of a sustainable and feasible production and extraction platform for the extraction of carotenoids (and fucoxanthin) from Phaeodactylum tricornutum. In this sense, a conventional methodology was optimized, as well as a novel extraction methodology based on alternative tensioactive solvents, exclusively in aqueous solution, namely common surfactants, copolymers and tensioactive ionic liquids. Regarding the alternative method developed, it was possible to achieve a final extraction of 32.67 mgcarotenoids/gbiomass with the ionic liquid [C18mim]Cl and 10.69 mgfucoxanthin/gbiomass with [C14mim]Cl, similar values or even superior when compared with those found for the conventional methodology. At the end, the achievement of fucoxanthin in its purest form is foreseen for further industrial application.