Extraction and purification of C-phycocyanin from Spirulina platensis (CCC540)

Devendra Kumar; Dolly Wattal Dhar; Sunil Pabbi; Neeraj Kumar; Suresh Walia

doi:10.1007/s40502-014-0094-7

Extraction and purification of C-phycocyanin from Spirulina platensis (CCC540)

Indian J Plant Physiol. 2014;19(2):184-188. doi: 10.1007/s40502-014-0094-7. Epub 2014 Jul 16.

Authors

Devendra Kumar¹, Dolly Wattal Dhar¹, Sunil Pabbi¹, Neeraj Kumar², Suresh Walia³

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Conservation and Utilisation of Blue Green Algae, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012 India.
² Microbiology Department, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India.
³ Division of Agricultural Chemical, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

Abstract

In this study a simple protocol was developed for purifying phycocyanin (PC) from Spirulina platensis (CCC540) by using ammonium sulphate precipitation, followed by a single step chromatography by using DEAE-Cellulose-11 and acetate buffer. Precipitation with 65 % ammonium sulphate resulted in 80 % recovery of phycocyanin with purity of 1.5 (A₆₂₀/A₂₈₀). Thro1ugh chromatography an 80 % recovery of phycocyanin with a purity of 4.5 (A₆₂₀/A₂₈₀) was achieved. In SDS_PAGE analysis, the purified PC showed the presence of two subunit α (16 kD) and β (17 kD).

Keywords: DEAE-Cellulose-11; Phycocyanin; Spirulina.