Phycocyanin extracted from Spirulina platenis has been linked to many food colorant and health applications. The extraction of this compound by using conventional method resulted low yield and longer processing time. This research was aimed to determine optimum process conditions of ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) of phycocyanin compound from microalgae Spirulina platensis. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to search UAE optimum conditions among set of variables: temperature (T=30-60oC), time (20-50 min) and frequency (28-42 Hz). The result showed that under unoptimized conditions, the yield of phycocyanin extracted by conventional method was 11.13 % while ultrasound could increase the yield up to 13.61 %. The optimization by using RSM showed that the maximum yield was achieved at 15.7 % and EC50 of 85.78 g/mL at temperature of 52.5oC, extraction time of 42 min and ultrasound frequency of 42 Hz. The conclusion of this research was ultrasound could improve significantly the efficiency of extraction of phycocyanin from microalgae and the obtained optimal conditions can be potentially scaled up to isolate phycocyanin for large production in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Key words: Spirulina, phycocyanin, ultrasound, extraction, solvent
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