Determinação de metabólitos lipídicos em cianobactéria

Abstract

The objective of this work was exploratory study of the squalene and sterol potential production by Phormidium autumnale, when cultivated under heterotrophic conditions. Gas chromatography was used to identify and quantify the lipid metabolites. In a first phase, the production of squalene was evaluated, using agroindustrial wastewater as the culture medium. The obtained results, demonstrated the generated biomass can be an important source of squalene, being estimated a production of 152 156 kg/year from an industry with operational capacity of 10 000 m3/d. This biomass was also characterized by the polyunsaturated fatty acid content, making up 51.8% of the total quantified fatty acids. In a second phase, using the source of carbon, agroindustrial wastewater, glucose and sucrose, plus the production of squalene, the content of sterols and their derivatives was evaluated. The results indicated the presence of 24 compounds, in the non-saponifiable fraction 22 sterols, a hopanoid and squalene. The major compounds found were: squalene (1440.4 μg.g-1) and ergosterol (1033.3 μg.g-1), using glucose as a substrate; Cholesterol (820.6 μg.g-1) and stigmasterol (455.3 μg.g-1) and squalene (225.4 μg.g-1) for industrial effluent cultures and (225.4 μg.g-1) for sucrose respectively. The results indicated that the biomass cultivated in agroindustrial wastewater had the highest concentration in phytosterols. In this sense, it is suggested that by manipulating the carbon sources, different compounds can be obtained to be applied in several industrial segments.