What this work is about, in plain words
How to obtain from spirulina a blue powder with the pigment phycocyanin and, separately, a complex of two yellow carotenoid pigments. According to the authors, the powder contained 18 % C-phycocyanin.
Spirulina is grown by the ton in many countries. Its biomass contains blue pigment-proteins (phycobiliproteins, the main one being C-phycocyanin) and yellow carotenoid pigments. The authors set out to develop ways to obtain from spirulina a powder with a high content of blue pigments and, separately, a complex of two carotenoids, myxoxanthophyll and oscillaxanthin.
Spirulina was grown in a 550 L pond-type installation with a suspension layer of 10–12 cm, with partial medium replacement. The blue pigments were extracted with hot water. For the carotenoids, the fat extract was diluted with water and kept cold for three days: the complex collected at the boundary between the liquids and was filtered off and washed. The composition was confirmed by chromatography, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance.
According to the authors, the biomass contained 15 % blue pigment-proteins, and the resulting powder 18 % C-phycocyanin. The carotenoid complex consisted of only two pigments and protein, in a 7 : 3 ratio. The authors believe such products can be obtained at existing spirulina production sites.
The work describes simple ways to isolate two groups of spirulina pigments.
Limitations. This is a conference abstract: without a full description of the methods and without statistics. The antitumor effect mentioned in the title was not studied in this work — the authors refer to the literature.