Astaxanthin accumulation in the green alga Haematococcus pluvialis:: Effects of cultivation parameters

The green alga, Haematococcus pluvialis Flotow is used as a source of the ketocarotenoid astaxanthin for application in fish aquaculture, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Cells of the green alga were induced by the application of different light and starvation conditions to evaluate the effect in astaxanthin accumulate. The conditions used for the induction were high light intensity (170 mu mol.m(-2).s(-1)), iron starvation, sulfur starvation and phosphate starvation. The results show that stresses applied in culture, which interfere with cell division, trigger the accumulation of astaxanthin. Notably, sulfur starvation results in a massive accumulation of this commercially important carotenoid.