Extraction of high purity and quality C-phycocyanin with high antioxidant activity from bulk culture biomass of Arthrospira platensis EGE MACC38

Arthrospira platensis is becoming increasingly popular as a nutraceutical. As a safe and high-quality food, it is used as a substitute for animal or plant foods due to its nutritional ingredients and high protein content. Among the phycobiliproteins c-phycocyanin (C-PC) is one of the most important bioactive products produced by A. platensis, with a wide range of applications in food, cosmetics and medical fields. In response to the growing global interest in replacing synthetic compounds with natural alternatives, optimizing the production processes of phycocyanin from A. platensis and developing efficient extraction and purification methods to achieve high purity for various industrial applications have become crucial areas of research. This study aimed to determine the purity, protein quality, biological activity and toxicity of C-PC obtained from A. platensis EGE MACC38 (isolated from Paracas Lake, Peru) cultivated under specified greenhouse conditions to evaluate the pigment's usability for different purposes. The C-PC content was 67 mg g(-1) protein, and its purity index (PI) was >3.9. HPLC analysis indicated that the quality of C-PC was high due to the presence of a higher proportion (20.21%) of essential amino acids (EAA). DPPH radical inhibition capacity of C-PC was measured as 28.24% for 0.1 mg ml(-1) protein (IC50 value is 0.386 mg ml(-1) protein). It did not show genotoxicity even at 2 mg per plate concentration on Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and TA 100 strains. Also, no computable IC50 value and cytotoxic effects of C-PC were detected. These findings indicated that C-PC is a valuable protein source due to its antioxidant properties and high EAA content, without exhibiting toxicity. In this study, we demonstrated an efficient purification method for obtaining high-purity C-PC from bulk culture biomass of A. platensis.