Sustainable approach towards isolation of photosynthetic pigments from Spirulina and the assessment of their prooxidant and antioxidant properties

Carotenoids, chlorophyll and phycocyanin are three types of photosynthetic pigments found in Spirulina that differ in colour, composition, stability, solubility, and commercial importance. Such diversity of structures creates a challenge to extract these pigments simultaneously from the same batch of raw material in an efficient and sustainable manner. This study demonstrates that water can be successfully used as a single solvent together with combined (non)mechanical cell membrane disruption techniques (ultrasonication, centrifugation, freezing/thawing cycle) to extract these photosynthetic pigments from the same batch. This water-based approach delivers a significant improvement in isolating green pigments, which are often overlooked during extraction due to a preference for blue and yellow pigments. Chlorophyll was quantitatively converted to its stable derivatives to carry out a comparative analysis of antioxidant properties (DPPH, TEAC, FRAP), singlet oxygen production and intracellular activities (MTT, ROS assays) using Caco-2 cells.