Pigment Productions by Spirulina platensis as a Renewable Resource

Pigments with specific nutritional and functional characteristics.materials and methods: in this study, the effect of various environmental factors affecting growth conditions of spirulina platensis, including primaryinoculation, light-dark cycle, cultivation time, light-emitting diode (led) composition, nitrogen source, carbon source, and nacl concentration, on biomass, c-phycocyanin (c-pc), allophycocyanin (apc) and chlorophyll-a contents were assessed using placket-burman design (pbd).results: results showed that out of the seven screened factors, four factors of carbon source, led composition, light-dark cycle and nacl concentration significantly affected biomass production (p<0.01). among the investigated factors, nitrogen source, light-dark cycle, and nacl concentration had significant effects on phycocyanin production (p<0.05). results showed that cultivation time, light-dark cycle, and nacl concentration significantly affected the production of allophycocyanin (p<0.05). furthermore, nacl concentration, carbon source, led composition, cultivation time, and initial inoculation included significant effects on chlorophyll-a production (p<0.05).conclusions: the present study screened variables affecting biomass, phycocyanin, allophycocyanin, and chlorophyll-a production as the first step in optimizing spirulina platensis growth condition. briefly, nacl concentration was one of the factors which had a significant impact on all responses. the dark cycle also had an effect on three dependent variables except for chlorophyll-a production.