C-PHYCOCYANIN EXTRACTION PROCESS FOR LARGE-SCALE USE CAROLINE COSTA MORAES, JANAÍNA FERNANDES DE MEDEIROS BURKERT and SUSANA JULIANO KALIL 1 Laboratório de Microbiologia Escola de Química e Alimentos Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Rio Grande Caixa Postal 474, 96201-900, RS, Brazil Accepted for Publication October 27, 2008 ABSTRACT C-phycocyanin (C-PC), a natural blue dye, has been used in food, immu- nodiagnostics and analytical reagents. In this paper, the optimization of the two-stage extraction of C-PC from Spirulina platensis cells was studied. First, the biomass underwent different treatments for cell disruption, including drying, freezing and milling at different levels, and the extraction was then carried out using fixed time, impeller rotational speed and biomass-to-solvent ratio. Having defined the cell rupture conditions, the extraction process was optimized, evaluating the effects of impeller rotational speed and biomass-to- solvent ratio with time using a factorial design and response surface techniques. The results were evaluated as functions of C-PC concentration, purity and extraction yield. The optimum conditions for extracting C-PC from dried, frozen biomass, milled to a small diameter, were an extraction time of 1 h, a biomass- to-solvent ratio 0.16:1, and without agitation, obtaining a C-PC concentration of 13.20 mg/mL, purity of 0.603 and extraction yield of 82.48 mg/g. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This manuscript reports the extraction of C-phycocyanin (C-PC) using a method that can be scaled up. C-PC can be used as a natural blue dye in the food industry as a substitute for artificial dyes, with the advantage that C-PC is healthier and extracted from algal biomass. This paper presents the use of a complete factorial design to optimize the extraction of C-PC from cyanobac- 1 Corresponding author. TEL: +55 (53) 32338754; FAX: +55 (53) 32338720; EMAIL: susana.kalil@ vetorial.net DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-4514.2009.00317.x Journal of Food Biochemistry 34 (2010) 133–148. © 2010, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 133