C-PHYCOCYANIN PURIFICATION: MULTIPLE PROCESSES FOR DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS

Abstract C-phycocyanin is a potential nutraceutical/pharmaceutical candidate with functionalities that are better documented than those of health foods in general. Studies have demonstrated that C-phycocyanin has antioxidant and antitumor properties and potential activities against other diseases. However, its large-scale purification remains problematic and expensive. The aim of this work was to establish the best process for obtaining C-phycocyanin of different purities for different applications. The first step of this study was the maximization of the ultrafiltration process. Under the best ultrafiltration conditions, we evaluated the application of ultrafiltration, precipitation, and ion exchange chromatography (expanded and fixed beds) in different sequences and their effects on C-phycocyanin recovery and purification. It was possible to obtain C-phycocyanin that could be used as food dye with purity of 0.95 employing only diafiltration/ultrafiltration. With different process configurations, we obtained extracts that could be used as cosmetic dye with purity of 2.1 and biomarkers with purity of 3.0, and for therapeutic and biomedicine applications with an analytical grade (purity > 4.0).摘要 C-藻蓝蛋白（C-phycocyanin）是极具潜力的营养保健品与制药候选物，其功能特性的研究证据相较于普通保健食品更为详实充分。已有研究证实，C-藻蓝蛋白具备抗氧化、抗肿瘤活性，以及针对其他疾病的潜在治疗活性。但目前其大规模纯化仍存在工艺复杂、成本高昂的问题。本研究旨在针对不同应用场景，建立可获取不同纯度C-藻蓝蛋白的最优纯化工艺。本研究的第一步为实现超滤工艺的效率最大化。在最优超滤工艺条件下，我们评估了超滤、沉淀及离子交换色谱（涵盖膨胀床与固定床两种模式）在不同组合序列下的应用效果，及其对C-藻蓝蛋白回收率与纯化效果的影响。仅采用渗滤/超滤工艺，即可获得纯度为0.95、可作为食品着色剂使用的C-藻蓝蛋白。通过调整工艺组合配置，我们分别获得了纯度2.1、可作为化妆品着色剂的提取物，纯度3.0的生物标志物级产品，以及纯度大于4.0的分析级产品，可用于治疗及生物医药领域。