Study of the bio‐production of carotenoids by Sporidiobolus salmonicolor (CBS 2636) using pre‐treated agro‐industrial substrates

BACKGROUND: The increasing industrial demand for carotenoids has aroused interest in their bio‐production, and the need to reduce production costs has encouraged the use of low cost industrial substrates, such as agro‐industrial residues. Thus the objective of this research was the bio‐production of carotenoids by Sporidiobolus salmonicolor using agro‐industrial substrates (corn steep liquor and sugarcane molasses), pre‐treated with acids (sulphuric and phosphoric). RESULTS: Bio‐production was carried out in an orbital shaker using a 10% (v/v) inoculum, incubation at 25 °C, and agitation at 180 rpm for 120 h in a non‐illuminated environment. The carotenoids were recovered using liquid N 2 combined with dimethylsulphoxide for cell rupture, and an acetone/methanol mixture (7:3 v/v) for extraction. CONCLUSION: The complete second‐order design allowed for optimisation of the carotenoid concentration obtained from industrial substrates pre‐treated with acids (sulphuric and phosphoric), obtaining a total carotenoid content of 541.5 µg L −1 using 10 g L −1 sugarcane molasses, 5 g L −1 corn steep liquor and 5 g L −1 yeast hydrolysate at 25 °C, with agitation at 180 rpm and an initial pH of 4.0.