Abstract
Application of natural colors in food and medicine, due to toxic effects of synthetic colors has been considered recently. Phycocyanin is regarded as the most preferred phycobilin pigment of cyanobacteria Spirulina because it has medical and medicinal features. In current study, phycocyanin was extracted and purified from Spirulina platensis using 5 freezing/thawing cycles, ultrasonic disruption, ammonium sulphate precipitation and dialysis. Purified phycocyanin was tested by UV-spectrophotometrically and using FT-IR and HPLC methods. The antifungal effect of purified phycocyanin was evaluated versus Candida albicans on sabouraud dextrose agar plates, and maximum anticandidal activity was revealed in the range from 20 to 25 mg/mL of phycocyanin. Making sure of phycocyanin’s antifungal effect, the efficacy of its produced cream (using 1.5 and 3% of phycocyanin compared to control) was investigated on mice infected with C. albicans. Based on obtained results, those groups of mice treated by formulation containing phycocyanin improved much sooner than control group.
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