BIOPROTOCOL DESIGN FOR LUTEIN PRODUCTION
Project no. 742 · Status: Kapanmış · 2016
Summary
The carotenoid lutein is a member of the xanthophyll group that has yellow-orange colour and it is widely used in health because of its antioxidative activity. Most recent studies have showed that lutein is an effective component for improvement of eye health. It is mainly synthesized by green leafy plants but the use of microalgae is an ideal option in case of appropriate cultivation systems are developed for lutein accumulation. In this project, four different steps were applied for lutein production from Haematococcus pluvialis microalgae. These steps are determination of optimum conditions on lab-scale, cultivation of microalgae under optimum conditions in different photobioreactor types and with different scale up strategies, transition from lab-scale to the pilot-scale with determined photobioreactor and scale-up strategy and evaluation of cell disruption methods. At the first step of study, optimum conditions were determined for 1 L cultivation bottles as BG11 culture medium, 65 µEm-2s-1 light intensity, 2 vvm aeration rate and 28 oC temperature value. Three different scale-up strategies and three different photobioreactors were evaluated and maximum lutein amount of 5.21 mg/g cell was achieved in flat plate photobioreactor using scale up strategy based on constant volumetric oxygen transfer rate. Then, lutein production was successfully step-wise scaled-up from 1000 mL bottle to 7 L flat plate photobioreactor using constant volumetric oxygen transfer rate. At the final stage of project, three different cell disruption methods were evaluated and glass bead beating was found most efficient method considering lutein yield. In this project, a detailed bioprotocol was designed for the production of lutein carotenoid which has an important place in the market. In addition, this study was prepared with the content and originality that could guide the next academic studies.