Evaluation of extraction methods for recovery of fatty acids from Botryococcus braunii LB 572 and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Microalgae are a very diverse group of organisms that consist in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic forms. Some species of microalgae can be induced to overproduce particular fatty acids through simple manipulations of the physical and chemical properties of the culture medium. In this paper, the effect of different extraction techniques on the recovery of fatty acids from the freeze-dried biomass from two lipid-producing microalgal strains: Botryococcus braunii LB 572 (green algae) and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (cyanobacteria) was examined. Five procedures were used: after conversion of the lipid material into the corresponding fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) via suitable derivatization reactions (extraction-transesterification) and direct transesterification of biomass to produce FAMEs (without the initial extraction step) that used differential types of catalysts and processing conditions. This study has shown that procedure 3, a one step practical procedure for lipid extraction and in situ methyl ester derivation could be used successfully for the determination of the fatty acid compositions of microalgae and cyanobacteria.