Plant Archives Volume 20 No. 2, 2020 pp. 8085-8097 e-ISSN:2581-6063 (online), ISSN:0972-5210 BETA-CAROTENE EXTRACTION FROM SOME MICROALGAE, CYANOBACTERIAAND CHLOROPHYTA WITH ITS ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIFUNGALACTIVITY Maha Falah Al-Taie and Mira Ausama Al-Katib* Department of Biology, College of Education for Pure Science, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq. Abstract Beta-carotene pigment was extracted from 3 isolates of some microalgae (cyanobacteria and green algae) which were isolated from the local environment of Mosul city. The maximum concentration of the pigment in the acetone extract of Chlorella alga (RC) was (1179.1 ppm), whereas the minimum was in the lower layer after separation of cyanobacteria Gloeocapsa (F2G) and was (271.2 ppm). The efficacy of Beta- carotene pigment and the acetone extract against bacteria and pathogenic fungi was studied and the results showed that all the samples of the used genera (cyanobacteria and green algae) had showed inhibitive efficacy against bacteria and fungi. The acetone extract of Chlorella surpassed the other extracts of raw cyanobacteria (acetone) and this applies to the beta- carotene pigment F1 extracted from Chlorella and its efficacy against bacteria and fungi, whereas the lower layer F2 showed the least effect against bacteria and fungi. Key word: b-carotene, Micro algae, Antimicrobial. Introduction Algae are simple autotrophic organisms, i.e. they have the ability to produce organic carbon through photosynthesis, their individuals vary in size, cellular structure and biological characteristic (Frost et al., 2012). Microalgae are considered by some as being composed of bluish green algae (cyanobacteria) with primitive nuclei, some small real nuclei chlorophyta (Miazeketal., 2015) and Gloeocapsa which belongs to the family Chroococcaceae with oval cells and rounded ends, spherical or semi- spherical and each cells is surrounded by a distinguished gelatine sheath (Athbi, 2014). As for Fischrella algae, the thallus is diverse and of different shape, either single stranded or multi- stranded green coloured and usually trailing. A few of them consist of upright branches which consist of oval cells (Wehr and Sheat, 2003). The green alga Chlorella belongs to the family Chlorellaceae; it lives in sweet water and is of single cell, each of which (µ8-L) thick and is non- flagellate (Shim et al., 2008). Algae are considered one of the richest biological sources with biologically effective compounds resulting from secondary metabolism, and they are sources for many of them such as Carotenoids, Terpens, Chlorophyll, fatty acids, alkaloids, phenols and other compounds used in manufacture and development of medicines to treat diseases such as cancer, aids, rheumatism, inflammations and viral, microbic or fungal infections (Almeida et al., 2011; Harmsen, 2011). Carotene pigments are natural pigments produced by different groups of living beings like plants, animals and microorganisms, and they take different colours like yellow, orange, red and purple (Li et al., 2012). Carotene pigments are characterized by ease of extraction and purification, their low cost, and also they have no negative side effects (Frengova and Behkova, 2002; Wang et al., 2012). Beta- carotene pigment is of a ring- shape composition made of a long chain of double bonds. Temperature consolidates the attachment of the double bonds resulting in their light colour (Fratianni et al., 2010), it also does many functions in the human body, namely limiting the hazard of developing cancer, and heart and cardiovascular diseases due to their anti- oxidation characteristics (Wang et al., 2008). Nowadays attention increased to the beta- carotene pigment which is one of the biologically active compounds that works with high efficacy (Ambati et al., 2014). To analyse the beta- carotene pigment, many methods were used including chromatography which is characterized by being on a high degree of sensitivity *Author for correspondence : E-mail : mirausama@uomosul.edu.iq