An Improved and Efficient Method for the Extraction of Phycocyanin from Spirulina sp

This paper describes an improved drying method and efficient procedure for the optimum extraction of phycocyanin from the Spirulina sp. We observed that, when Spirulina biomass is dried at 250C under shadow by air circulation and extraction of phycocyanin at 40C for 24 h in phosphate buffer at pH 7.0 (0.1 M) yield maximum phycocyanin ( 80 mg/g). This also shows relatively highest purity ratio of 1.8. When extraction of phycocyanin with other available methods were carried out, showed purity ratio of 0.45 to 1.34. The extraction of phycocyanin in hydrochloric acid (2.0 N to 10.0 N) showed the contamination of chlorophyll in the phycocyanin extract. The proposed method of air-drying and extraction suggested in this paper showed only 5 to 7% loss of phycocyanin during drying process.