Phycocyanin is a major functional protein in Spirulina, accounting for 20% of the dry basis of Spirulina.
Phycocyanin can be used as a natural colorant and raw material for nutritional health products in the food industry; it can be developed as an additive in the cosmetics industry; it also has great development potential in the pharmaceutical industry, but the light and heat sensitivity of phycocyanin, as well as its intolerance to acid and alkali, have resulted in the industrial application of phycocyanin not being popularized.
However, in recent years, with the advancement of science and technology, the separation and purification technology of phycocyanin has been continuously updated and iterated, and its product quality and economic efficiency have been rapidly improved, making the development and application field gradually attract the attention of various industries and scholars.
Phycocyanin has antioxidant activity. Studies have shown that phycocyanin can regulate metabolic disorders caused by the removal and generation of free radicals, and free radicals are directly or indirectly related to the occurrence of many diseases.
Study on Extraction of Phycocyanin
The content of phycocyanin is related to the cultivation conditions and processing technology of Spirulina. The content of phycocyanin in Spirulina obtained from different nitrogen source culture media is different. The content of phycocyanin in Spirulina irradiated with red light is higher than that in Spirulina irradiated with blue light. The content of phycocyanin in Spirulina cultivated in spring and summer is higher than that in autumn. Common drying methods for Spirulina include shade drying, sun drying, oven drying, microwave drying, vacuum drying, freeze drying, spray drying, etc. Among them, freeze drying, shade drying and spray drying are conducive to the stability of phycocyanin.
Phycocyanin is an intracellular protein, and the extraction effect is related to the cell wall disruption method and extraction process parameters. Common mechanical cell wall breaking methods include swelling method, repeated freeze-thaw method, ultrasonic-assisted cell wall breaking method, high-pressure homogenization method, tissue grinding method, etc., as well as chemical solvent method, biological enzyme method, etc. Pulsed electric field and resistance heating methods have also been used in the application of cell wall breaking and phycocyanin extraction in recent years. However, in actual operation, in order to achieve the ideal cell wall breaking effect, several cell wall breaking methods are usually coupled and used.
The swelling method is to soak the spirulina powder in an aqueous solution. Due to the different osmotic pressures inside and outside the cells, water enters the cells, breaks the cell walls, and phycocyanin is dissolved. The swelling method requires simple equipment and is easy to operate, but the disadvantage is that it takes a long time.
The repeated freeze-thaw method uses a low-temperature freezing environment to freeze the spirulina suspension, and thaws it at room temperature, repeatedly to achieve the effect of cell breaking, cell breaking, and phycocyanin dissolution. The repeated freeze-thaw method is easy to operate, but the disadvantage is that it takes a long time to scale up production and is difficult to achieve.
The ultrasonic-assisted wall breaking method mainly uses the shear force and shock wave generated by the cavitation effect during ultrasonic transmission to fully break the cell wall and release intracellular proteins. The ultrasonic wall breaking method has a short experimental cycle and a high cell breaking rate. The disadvantage is that the factory production energy consumption is high, and the heat generated during the ultrasonic wall breaking process causes the material temperature to rise, which is easy to cause protein denaturation.
The high-pressure homogenization method uses the high-speed shear and impact phenomenon generated during the pressurization and sudden decompression process when the material in the high-pressure homogenizer passes through the high-pressure homogenization valve to make the immiscible liquid-liquid or liquid-solid experimental materials form an extremely fine and uniform emulsified state for the dissolution of phycocyanin.
The high-speed shear method uses the strong shear force generated by the high-speed rotating blade to fully transfer the broken material and the solvent medium in the high-speed flow, thereby promoting the dissolution of soluble substances.
Chemical reagents [2-(N-morpholino)ethylsulfonic acid, calcium chloride, etc. can directly destroy the organizational structure of the cell wall, improve permeability, and allow proteins to flow out of the cell. There are fewer cell impurities in the treated sample, but the introduction of chemical reagents is not conducive to subsequent purification, and chemical reagents are prone to damage the protein structure.
In addition, the bioenzyme method uses bioenzymes to treat the cell wall to promote the dissolution of intracellular substances.
The pulsed electric field method exposes cells to a pulsed electric field, forming a transmembrane voltage inside and outside the cell, causing cell membrane damage, thereby dissolving intracellular substances. Generally speaking, the more complete the cell disruption, the higher the dissolution rate of phycocyanin, but the dissolution of Spirulina cell sheath polysaccharides makes the subsequent separation and purification of phycocyanin more difficult.
Generally speaking, powdered phycocyanin is more stable than liquid phycocyanin, and microencapsulated phycocyanin and chemically modified phycocyanin are more stable. At present, phycocyanin generally includes two types of dosage forms: liquid phycocyanin and powdered phycocyanin. Powdered phycocyanin is generally made by spray drying or freeze drying. The main excipients in the product are trehalose, glucose and maltodextrin.
As a rare natural blue pigment, phycocyanin has important application value in food, medicine, cosmetics and other fields. Phycocyanin has unique color, rich nutrition, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and other physiological functions, and has broad prospects for development and application. However, from the current development point of view, the purification technology of phycocyanin needs to be improved. Although the separation and purification of phycocyanin has made certain progress in recent years, the key technology suitable for large-scale industrial production still needs to be solved. In addition, its stability problem has not been well solved, which seriously restricts the wide application of the pigment. Therefore, the preparation and stabilization technology of phycocyanin still need in-depth research and exploration.
Xi'an Pincredit Bio-Tech Co.,Ltd. is a professional manufacturer and supplier of Phycocyanin.
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