EXTRACTION AND QUANTIFICATION OF PHYCOBILIPROTEIN FROM Nostoc sp.

Phycobiliproteins (PBP) are a set of pigmented proteins and water soluble produced by cyanobacteria, with applications in the food and pharmacological industries. Since it is an intracellular compound, the use of a method of cellular disruption is required. This work evaluated the efficiency of different methods in order to maximize the extraction of PBP from the strain of Nostoc sp.. The only PBP detected in the extracts was phycocyanin and, among the extraction methods tested, the best result was achieved by using cycles of freezing and thawing combined with ultrasound, obtaining a concentration of phycocyanin of 32.8 μg.mL-1 with a purity of 0.545, showing an efficient method of extraction.