the effect of sonication time on phycobiliproteins extraction from spirulina platensis

Spirulina platensis is a photosynthetic cyanobacteria that has precious pigments called phycobiliproteins. these pigments are utilised in a number of applications in foods, cosmetics, biotechnology, diagnostics, and biomedical application. in this study, phycobiliproteins are extracted from spirulina platensis by sonicatication method in three different sonication times, i.e., 1, 3, and 5 min. the results show that the time of sonication plays a significant role in concentration of the extracted phycobiliproteins. as the sonication time increased from 1 to 3 minutes, phycobiliproteins concentration in extraction buffer remarkably increased, but further improvement did not observed as the sonication time increased to 5 minutes. also, no significant change in phycocyanin purity was spotted as the sonication time varied.therefore, excessive sonication time for extraction of phycobiliproteins has no effect on the results and wastes time and energy. with optimum time of sonication (3 min) with 32 khz sonication frequency, the total phycobiliproteins in the extract are about 115 mg gr-1 (by dry spirulina weight) and purity of 0.86 has been reached.