Abstract

The intention of the proposed work is to study on extraction of phycocyanin pigment from blue green algae and its antibacterial activity. The water sample was collected from Mettur dam and brought to the laboratory for isolation and microscopical analysis. The isolated colony was found to be Oscillatoria sp. and it was grown in BG 11 medium. The Oscillatoria sp. was grown in 1000 mL and centrifuged for biomass. Then the centrifuged biomass was weighed and used for extraction of phycocyanin. On analysis of the phycocyanin from Oscillatoria sp. it was found that the phycocyanin concentration was
2.39 mg/mL and Extraction yield was obtained to be 4.735 mg/g. The protein estimation of the phycocyanin pigment using Lowry’s method was found to be 273.8 µg/ mL. Phycocyanin pigment was used to identify the antimicrobial activity against three pathogenic bacteria. Finally the antimicrobial activity was carried out on Muller hinton agar plates with different concentrations of phycocyanin such as 20 µL (4.48 μg), 40 µL (13.44 µg) and 60 µL (17.92 µg). The obtained results shows the ability of phycocyanin as antimicrobial agent against human pathogens.

Key words: Oscillatoria sp., Phycocyanin, Extraction, purification and pathogen