Research Article
Nematzadeh GH, Fathalipour K,
Abstract
Marine microalgae constitute natural sources of carotenoids used in a variety of drugs, and pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic applications. In this study, inducible effects of K2HPO4 on the accumulation of some apo carotenoids including chlorophyll-a and b, beta carotene, astaxanthin, lycopene and pheophytin were explored using a completely randomized design with five treatments and three replications. Cellular extracts were carried out with dimethyl sulfoxide solvent. A Duncan’s test was performed on data obtained through spectrophotometric absorption of studied metabolites. Our results showed a significant difference among the treatments. The metabolites content in cellular extracts at the stationary phase of algae were estimated at the highest level of 4.5 and 3.58 mg/g for chlorophyll-a, and beta carotene, respectively, in the fifth treatment level. Astaxanthin and lycopene were 1.505 and 2.84 mg/g, respectively, in the second treatment. There was no significant difference between the chlorophyll-b and pheophytin pigments when compared to the control.