PO-229 (JTK):

The effect of drought stress on the production of astaxanthin by Haematococcus pluvialis and drawing the optimum curve.

Haematococcus pluvialis, a unicellular freshwater greenalgae, is known to be a major producer of astaxanthin in nature. An astaxanthin, one of the carotenoids, is a high value-added secondary metabolite as a kind of the strongest antioxidants (550 times that of vitamin E). However, restructuring the process is required for improvement in order to industrially use it because the production efficiency is low. In this study, efforts to promote astaxanthin production through draining the medium during the log phase of cell growth are made. The liquid medium consists of more than 99% growth medium and less than 1% cells. As the time passes, the cells of H. pluvialis settle down as they accumulate astaxanthin inside the cell and this causes a fall in the amount of light that reaches the cells. Therefore, it shows that it can simply increase the efficiency of the light by draining the medium. However, if the medium is overdrained, the increase of the cell density can cause the adverse effect. Thus, an optimum curve was plotted via taking into account light intensity, surface area of the container and cell density.

keywords:Haematococcus pluvialis,Astaxanthin,Drought stress,Drain