Biomass and eicosapentaenoic acid production from Amphora sp. under different environmental and nutritional conditions.

Abstract

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) could be extracted from diatoms such as Amphora sp. present abundantly in the ecosystems. In view of the key environmental and nutritional factors governing the diatoms growth rate, culture conditions were optimized for the biomass yield, total lipid content, EPA yield, and fatty acid composition under two main cultivation regimes: photoautotrophic and heterotrophic. The fastest growth rate about 0.20±0.02g/L and the highest EPA yield about 9.19±3.56mgEPA/g biomass were obtained by adding 10g/L glucose and sucrose, respectively. Under photoautotrophic culture conditions, Amphora sp. rendered higher EPA yield at 100rpm and 16:8 light/dark cycle. Total fatty acids produced predominantly comprised of an approximate 40-70% of saturated fatty acids, followed by 10-27% of monounsaturated fatty acids and then 8-25% of polyunsaturated fatty acids. These findings were able to pave a way for huge-scale microalgal biomass production in commercial EPA production.