Natural Colorants Extracted from Microalgae with Potential Use in Food: Case Study of C-phycocyanins

Abstract

The use of spirulina for the formulation of 
functional foods has increased in recent years due to its 
properties and health benefits. In addition, the use of spirulina 
phycocyanin is of interest for its functional properties in the 
human body, with health benefits ranging from anti
inflammatory action to its power as an anticancer agent. 
However, one of the problems with the use of phycocyanin in 
food is to optimize its extraction at maximum concentration and 
with good stability. In this work, a method of extraction and 
precipitation of phycocyanin with different salts was 
standardized, with the aim of optimizing the parameters of the 
extraction process (temperature, pH, agitation, amount of 
solvent and time) and precipitation (temperature of storage, 
precipitating salt concentration, and time) to maximize 
phycocyanin concentration, using the response surface method. 
The results of the proposed phycocyanin extraction and 
precipitation method managed to obtain concentrations of 0.378 
mg/ mL and 0.47 mg/g of phycocyanins respectively, thus 
obtaining a natural pigment for incorporation into beverages.