Special carbon requirement of Spirulina platensis culture. [Translation from: Materialy VII Vsesoyuznogo Rabochego Soveshchanii po Voprosu Krugovorota Veshchestv v Zamknutoi Sisteme na Osnove Zhiznedeyatel'nosti Nizshikh Organizmov p55-57. Kiev, Naukova Dumka, 1972.]

By the industrial cultivation of blue-green algae, there very much appears the important question about their carbon nutrition. Spirulina grows within the range of pH value of medium of 8.5 - 11.0. In this range of pH value in the culture medium CO2 is present in the form of bicarbonate and carbonate, which serves as principal source of carbon for the present type of algae. There is little information yet about the influence of the pH of the medium, and the form of carbon components of the medium, on the rate-increase of Spirulina. Investigations were conducted into the influence of some pH values of medium on the rate-increase of the alga Spirulina platensis

Using water, light, air and spirulina to access a wide variety of polyoxygenated compounds

A new set of completely green methods utilising air, light, water and spirulina to transform readily accessible furan substrates into a diverse range of synthetically useful polyoxygenated motifs commonly found in natural products is presented herein

Enhancement of Biomass Production from Spirulina sp Cultivated in POME Medium

Indonesia is the largest producer coconut palm oil in the world. As increasing in production, the palm oil mill efluent are also produced in about 66% by FFB (Fresh Fruit Bunch). Palm oil mill effluent is usually processed by a traditional aerobic open lagoon or by anaerobic digestion. POMED (palm oil mill effluent digested) has a high nutrient content and it can be used as medium for microalgae cultivation. Spirulina sp is a kind of cyanobacteria contains high protein and a potential product for animal feed. This research purpose is to find optimum saving synthetic nutrient of Spirulina sp cultivated in POMED and to find optimum POMED concentration used for algae cultivation. Research was done in two steps. First step, Spirulina sp was cultivated in 20% POMED concentration with different saving nutrient (0%, 20%, 50%, 70%, and 90%). At second step, Spirulina sp was cultivated in different POMED concentration (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% v/v) for 16 days. At first 8 days, nutrient was added to medium. At second 8 days, the nutrient was not added to medium.. Optical density was monitored every day using spectrophotometer with wave length 680nm. At the end of cultivation, medium was filtered to obtain wet biomass (10% Total suspended solid). Spirulina sp can grow well in 20% POMED, save 50% from synthetic nutrient, and produced 5.93gr/l wet biomass for 9 days. Research was continued without adding nutrient and produced optimum biomass 9.8gr/l in 40% POMED for 13 days. Keywords: optimum biomassa, POMED, saving synthetic nutrient, Spirulina s

Catalytic upgrading of hydrothermal liquefaction biocrudes: Different challenges for different feedstocks

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) followed by catalytic hydrotreating of the produced biocrude is increasingly gaining ground as an effective technology for the conversion of biomass into liquid biofuels. A strong advantage of HTL resides in its great flexibility towards the feedstock, since it is able to treat a large number of different organic substrates, ranging from dry to wet residual biomass. Nevertheless, the characteristics of biocrudes from different typologies of organic materials result in different challenges to be met during the hydrotreating step, leading to differences in heteroatoms removal and in the typology and composition of the targeted products. In this work, biocrudes were catalytically hydrotreated with a commercial NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst at different temperatures and pressures. Sewage sludge biocrude was found to be very promising for the production of straight-chain hydrocarbons in the diesel range, with considerable heteroatoms removal even at mild hydrotreating conditions. Similar results were shown by algal biocrude, although complete denitrogenation is challenging. Upgraded biocrudes from lignocellulosic feedstock (miscanthus) showed high yields in the gasoline range, with a remarkable content of aromatics. Operating at a higher H2 pressure was found to be crucial to prevent coking and decarboxylation reactions.Comment: Accepted manuscript for publication in Renewable Energ

STRUCTURE OF METHYLPHEOPHORBIDE-RCI

he methanolic extract of the cyanobacterium (blue-green alga) Spirulina geitleri has been treated with methanolic acid to convert all chlorophyllous pigments to their methylpheophorbides. Fractionation of the latter from methylpheophorbide a by thin layer chromatography and high pressure liquid chromatography yielded methylpheophorbide-RCI. Its structure has been determined as 132S-hydroxy-20-chloro-methylpheophorbide a by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance, absorption and circular dichroism spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and by partial synthesis from chlorophyll a. The pigment is isolated from Spirulina geitleri irrespective of the use or omission of chlorinated substances during the isolation procedure

Role of antioxidant supplementation and exercise regimen in handling oxidative stress from natural PM2.5 exposure due to boreal forest fire

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) exposure induces oxidative stress that causes many negative health outcomes such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease. Research shows that dietary antioxidants and an up-regulated endogenous antioxidant response from exercise play key roles in the antioxidant defense against oxidative stress. This study is the first to use an animal model to investigate the cumulative effects of using lifestyle interventions of antioxidant supplementation (Arthrospira platensis) and exercise regimen on the antioxidant response before, during, and after ambient PM2.5 exposure. In a two-factorial, longitudinal design, sled dogs (n=48) were divided into four groups (exercise and supplemented, exercise, supplemented, and control) to (1) test the effects of exercise and antioxidant regimen on antioxidant response after one month of implemented exercise and supplementation protocol and (2) measure the antioxidant response of all groups during and after a natural forest fire event in 2015. Commercial assays for Total antioxidant Power (TAP) and the enzymatic antioxidant Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) were used as markers for the total antioxidant response and the endogenous response at all time points. During the forest fire, SOD was increased 5-10-fold over pre/post-exposure levels in all groups suggesting potential implication for using SOD as a marker for the acute response to environmental stress. TAP was increased in the exercise groups after one month of exercise protocol implementation, demonstrating the cytoprotective increase of antioxidants after repeated exercise.Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1 PM2.5 -- 1.2 Oxidative stress and exercise -- 1.3 Antioxidants -- 1.4 Significance and research hypothesis -- Chapter 2 The effects of spirulina supplementation and exercise regimen on the antioxidant response to PM2.5 exposure in sled dogs -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Materials and methods -- 2.2.1 Animals -- 2.2.2 Experimental design -- 2.2.4 Exercise -- 2.2.5 Blood sampling -- 2.2.6 Biochemical analyses -- 2.2.7 Statistics -- 2.3 Results -- 2.4 Discussion -- 2.5 Conclusions -- Chapter 3 Conclusions and future directions -- References

Production and characterization of silver nanoparticles in cultures of the cyanobacterium A. platensis (Spirulina)

The increasing application of Silver nanoparticles in biologically-relevant areas (including production of textiles, cosmetics, and biomedical devices), where their presence provides a continuous release of silver ions to provide protection against bacteria and other unwanted microbial contaminants urges adoption of intrinsically biologically safe production processes. Various species of cyanobacteria and algae have been known to absorb and take up heavy metal ions. This capability is shown also by Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina), a cyanobacterium that enjoys the Generally Recognised as Safe (GRAS) status and has been declared by WHO one among the greatest superfood. The present study aims at investigating the coupling between the recognised beneficial effects of Spirulina biomass to the antimicrobial activity of Ag nanoparticles (SNPs). In this work, Spirulina was grown in sequential cultures targeting biomass production and nanoparticle formation. The cultures were conditioned during their lifetime in order to assess the effect of pH and added polysaccharides on the size and on the stability of the obtained SNPs. The synthesized SNPs were characterized as to their size and stability (Nanosizer), composition (XRD) and structural aspect (Scanning Electron Microscope)