Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 14 SLACA - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

Yeasts of the genus Rhodotorula can accumulate carotenoids in their cells. These yeasts can be cultivate in cassava wastewater due to the presence of fermentable sugars, nitrogen and nutrients. This study aims to investigate the production of carotenoids from Rhodotorula mucilaginosa URM 7409 in culture media with glucose (40 g/L) and different concentrations of cassava wastewater (50%, 30%, 10%, and 6%). The culture media containing 107 cells/mL from the inoculum and pH 6.0 were incubated at 25°C with orbital shaking at 130 rpm for 144h. At the end, biomasses of yeasts were collected from the fermented media by centrifugation and the biomass concentration was estimated by optical density at 620 nm. Then, the biomasses were dried at 30°C for 48h and the carotenoids were extracted according to Fonseca et al. (2011), Michelon et al. (2012), and Cipolatti et al. (2015). These compounds were quantified at 448 nm (CABRAL et al., 2011; DAVIES, 1976). The supernatants were used for the quantification of total sugars (MILLER, 1959). The medium containing 50% of cassava wastewater provided the higher growth (8.56 g/L) of the yeast and the higher value for the reduction of the sugars presents in the medium (76.9%). On the other hand, the higher production of specific (720.72 µg/g) and volumetric (1599.5 µg/L) carotenoids was observed in the medium containing 6% of cassava wastewater due to the high C/N ratio of the medium. As observed by Braunwald et al. (2013), yeasts of the genus Rhodotorula accumulate higher quantities of carotenoids in media with high C/N ratios. In conclusion, the cultivation of the yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa URM 7409 in a medium with glucose and low concentrations of cassava wastewater increase the production of carotenoids.