The yeast Phaffia rhodozyma produces astaxanthin, a carotenoid pigment widely applied in fish and crustaceous cultivation. This yeast can be efficiently cultured in a low cost medium, sugar cane broth diluted 1:10 and supplemented with 1 g/L urea. However, the biomass and astaxanthin production undergo inhibition by the substrate (Crabtree effect), limiting the utilization of sugar cane broth up to 20 g/L total sugar concentration. Therefore, this effect must be considered during the industrial production of astaxanthin. In the present work, using fed batch system to cultivate P. rhodozyma we were able to obtain 0.024 mg astaxanthin/l.h compared to 0.013 mg astaxanthin/l.h obtained by the discontinuous cultivation system.
Astaxanthin; Phaffia rhodozyma; Fed batch cultivation
