Influence of organic solvents in the extraction and purification of torularhodin from Sporobolomyces ruberrimus

Objective This work aimed at evaluating the influence of organic solvents and stationary phases in the extraction with glass beads and chromatographic purification of carotenoids, especially torularhodin, from Sporobolomyces ruberrimus . Results The combinations of acetone:hexane (1:1 v/v) and acetone:ethyl ether (1:1 v/v) yielded 171.74 and 172.19 μg of total carotenoids.g of cells -1 , respectively. The first blend resulted in the highest percent of cell lysis of 57.4%. Among different proportions of acetone:hexane, the 9:1 v/v mixture showed a significant difference (p < 0.05), resulting in a recovery of total carotenoids of 221.88 μg.g of cells −1 . The purification of carotenoids was made by preparative chromatography and the yield of the silica-containing stationary phase was higher (24 μg torularhodin.g cells −1 ). The analyses of the purified fractions in thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography indicated that the purification of carotenoids, especially of torularhodin, was successfully performed. Conclusions The combination of polar (acetone) and non-polar solvents (hexane) and the use of silica as stationary phase was efficient to recover and purify torularhodin from the intracellular pigments of Sporobolomyces ruberrimus .