ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PHYCOCYANIN PIGMENT FROM Spirulina platensis

• Main Author: Susanti
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/44514
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Spirulina platensis is a type of microalgae that has been widely used in some countries as a food supplement and medicine. It is also used as a natural dye for food and cosmetics which derived from its components of pigments and one of them is phycocyanin. The objective of this study was to obtained the phycocyanin from dried biomass of Spirulina platensis through optimize extraction and purification method. Two extraction methods were conducted, sonication and freeze-thawing methods. The solvent used were water, CaCl2 1%, 0.01 M phosphate buffer at pH 7 and 0.01 M acetate buffer pH 5. The parameter used were purity ratio (A615/A280), concentration of phycocyanin (mg.ml -1 ) and yield (mg.g -1 ) obtained from the calculation using absorbance values. Phycocyanin purification was done by using ammonium sulfate precipitation with some level of saturations, dialysis using cellulose membranes and gel filtration chromatography. The result of purification was characterized by gel electrophoresis for molecular weight determination. Characterization of functional groups was done with infrared spectrophotometry. Phycocyanin extracts obtained by freeze thawing method in 0.01 M phosphate buffer pH 7 has the highest purity ratio and after purified by precipitation with ammonium sulfate, dialysis and gel filtration chromatography, the purity increased to 1,730 then it can be used for food and cosmetic products (phycocyanin food grade: A615/A280 ?0.7). Molecular weight characterization which carried out with SDS-PAGE showed that the molecular weight was between 15-16 kDa. Infra-red spectrum showed similarity with phycocyanin standard. Therefore the pigment isolate was confirmed as phycocyanin.