Green extraction of polysaccharides from Arthrospira platensis using high pressure homogenization

The efficiency of high pressure homogenization as cell disruption method was investigated on the cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis for the recovery of polysaccharides following the concept of green chemistry, mainly solvent and energy saving. The highest yield of polysaccharides (15.1 +/- 0.8 g (100 g)(-1) dry weight) was obtained at a solid concentration of 14.5% (w/w), inlet pressure of 500 bar and after 4 homogenization cycles. High-pressure treatment resulted in a 2.5-fold higher yield than the conventional hot water method. Purified polysaccharides extracted under the optimized conditions were isolated and characterized by ATR-FTIR and HPSEC. It was shown that polysaccharides of A. platensis can be extracted using high pressure homogenization under mild conditions (short time, ambient temperature, no chemicals, neutral pH) with a high yield of recovery and a specific energy consumption of 0.41 kWh kgDW-1,, $$\end{document}which is close to the minimum energy demand recommended for an extraction step within biorefinery processes.