Comparison Accumulation of Total Carotenoid in Green Microalgae Under Normal and Stress Induction Growth Condition

Abstract

Carotenoids are a group of isoprenoid-derived compounds usually synthesized in all photosynthetic organisms that play roles in photosynthesis including photosynthetic bacteria, plants and microalgae. The structure of carotenoids that make up from conjugated double bond making them as strong antioxidant than other organisms that has been widely applied in nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals industry. Recently, production of carotenoids by microalgae has been extensively studied as most potential for carotenoid production. In this study, the preliminary study on growth characteristics and amount of total carotenoid by other fast growing green microalgae were reported. The freshwater green microalgae Acutodesmus sp., Chlorella sp. and Coelastrum sp. were compared in term of their growth and total carotenoid accumulation under normal growth condition and stress induction growth condition to study whether the microalgae cultures can produce biomass and accumulate carotenoids simultaneously and yet to fasten the production of carotenoids. Total carotenoid was identified and quantified using spectrophotometric method based on absorption coefficients. The outcomes of the experiment indicated that all these microalgae accumulated significance amounts of total carotenoid under normal and stress induction growth condition.