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Nat. Env. & Poll. Tech.
Website: www.nep1joumal.com
Received: 30-01-2016
Accepted: 18-03-2016
Key Words:
Cell growth
Chlorophyll
Nannochloropsis sp. BJ17
Salinity
ABSTRACT
In this study, the effect of salinity (5, 15, 25 and 35%o) on growth and total chlorophyll content of Nannochloropsis sp. BJ17 was evaluated. Moreover, chlorophyll content during logarithmic and stationary phases was investigated. The results showed that maximum cell growth and chlorophyll concentration of Nannochloropsis sp. BJ17 were achieved at the salinity of 15%. The algae had the higher total chlorophyll concentration in stationary phase than in logarithmic phase. The authors conclude that, the optimum growth and chlorophyll content of Nannochloropsis sp. BJ17 were achieved in salinity of 15%.
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INTRODUCTION
Marine microalgae are potential producers of favourable special compounds such as pigments, vitamins, sugars, and lipids with valued fatty acids (Pal et al. 2011, Koller et al. 2014). Pigments are regarded as one of the most potential product from microalgae (Rao et al. 2007, Forján et al. 2007, Granado-Lorencio et al. 2009). The significant pigment groups are found in microalgae, that is chlorophylls, carotenoids, and phycobilins. All these pigments can be applied in food technology, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industry (Dufosse et al. 2005, Koller et al. 2014). Chlorophyll is one of the useful bioactive compounds that can be extracted from biomass of microalgae. It has been used as a natural food colouring agent and has antioxidant property (Hosikian et al. 2010).
The production of biomass and pigments can vary significantly depending on the culture conditions of microalgae (Rao et al. 2007). Salinity is one of the most essential parameters affecting the growth and biochemical composition especially chlorophyll content of marine microalgae (Hu 2004, Ghezelbash et al. 2008, Zhila et al. 2011). The adaptability of microalgae to salinity is speciesspecific and is depending on the physiological characteristic of species (Richmond 1986) and species origin (Banerjee et al. 2011). Adenan et al. (2013) reported that Chlorella sp. showed optimum growth when cultured at low salinity. Ak et al. (2008) reported that chlorophyll a content of Dunaliella viridis increased with increasing salinity. Nannochloropsis sp. is highly potential microalgae which has been widely utilized as animal feed in aquaculture (Richmond & Zheng 2001, Rodolfi et al. 2003). Moreover, it has been...