Effects on growth and pigments contents of nannochloropsis sp. under heterotrophic condition with organic carbon source

Abstract

This study was conducted on Nannochloropsis sp. with intention to determine the growth and pigments content under heterotrophic condition with supp lement of organic carbon source. This study was also conducted to test the sustainability of Nannochloropsis sp. population under the adverse conditions. The specimen microalgae were culture in the f72 medium enriched with glucose at O ppm, 10 ppm, 50 ppm, 200 ppm and 500pm, in order to determine the best concentration for their growth and pigments content development under heterotrophic condition. Growth were determined by counting in haemacytometer while the pigments content were extracted with 90% acetone and determined through spectrophotometric method. There result has shown significance (p< 0.05) in treatments regards to the growth of microalgae. Nannochloropsis sp. could not grow well under heterotrophic condition but shown better result with 10 ppm of glucose content and obtained highest carotenoids/chlorophyll ratio 0.765 compared to 0.484 in O pm and 0.572 in 50 ppm. The concentrations of glucose for 200 ppm and 500 ppm were not suitable for microalgae production due to over concentrated and not cost effective. In future, the result is useful in determining the widely tolerate of the species under heterotrophic condition, where intended to develop a cost-effective and simple method of cultivation.