Improvement of the downstream step for the extraction of carotenoids produced by the yeast Phaffia rhodozyma

Abstract

Carotenoids are the most widespread class of pigments in nature. They have high market demand due to their beneficial health properties, resulting in an increase in research related to their biotechnological production, which can be produced by several microorganisms, such as the yeast Phaffia rhodozyma. Therefore, research is needed to evaluate more efficient extraction and recovery methods and techniques for these products. In this context, this study proposes to evaluate different pretreatments in the biomass of P. rhodozyma and different solvents for carotenoid recovery. For this, three pre-treatments in the biomass were evaluated (drying 24 h - freezing 24 h; drying 48 h - freezing 48 h and freeze-drying). The use of hexane and petroleum ether as a solvent to obtain the carotenogenic extract was also verified. With the improvement of the methodology, the maximum specific concentration (245.71 ± 6.08 µg g^-1) and volumetric concentration (1803.50 ± 36.46 µg L^- 1) of carotenoids were obtained using petroleum ether in the pre-treatment with drying 24 h (35 °C) and freezing 24 h (-18 °C). This result shows that in the 24 h assay the amount of carotenoids extracted from biomass is 23.3% more efficient than the method usually used (drying 48 h - freezing 48 h), reducing the processing time by 48 h.