Fucoxanthin is a carotenoid that exerts multiple beneficial effects on human health, including antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and anti-obesity activity. Although the extraction of the carotenoid has been previously reported, studies on microalgae culture conditions for its production, recovery and purification are still limited. In this work a lab-scale production, recovery and partial purification process of fucoxanthin from Isocrhysis galbana has been studied. In batch cultures, low light intensities (13.5 mmol/m2s) and bubble agitation were the best conditions for production of the carotenoid with product yields of up to 0.296 ± 0.033 mg/g. After fucoxanthin ethanolic extraction from wet biomass and hexane partition, further recovery and purification of the carotenoid was accomplished by means of alcohol–salt Aqueous Two-Phase System (ATPS) extraction followed by an ultrafiltration (UF) step. An ATPS comprised of ethanol and potassium phosphate (Volume Ratio = 3; Tie-line Length 60% w/w) presented a fucoxanthin recovery yield of 76.24 ± 1.60% among the studied systems and was able to remove 64.89 ± 2.64% of the carotenoid and chlorophyll pollutants. For UF, addition of ethanol to the original recovered ethanolic ATPS stream to a final relation of 74.15% (w/w) resulted in a reduction of approximately 16% of the protein contents, increasing product purity with a recovery yield of about 63% of the compound in the permeate stream. Considering the production, extraction and primary recovery (ATPS and UF) steps, around a 45% global fucoxanthin recovery should be expected. Although other purification technologies such as Centrifugal Partition Chromatography are able to obtain fucoxanthin recoveries of up to 83%, the process developed in the present work does not require large volumes of solvents or expensive equipment. Moreover, it has potential for scale up to commercial scale and represents a cost-effective strategy when compared to traditional separation techniques like chromatography.

Practical experiences in the development of a lab-scale process for the production and recovery of fucoxanthin from Isochrysis galbana

249th National Meeting (2015)

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