Protic Ionic Liquids as Cell-Disrupting Agents for the Recovery of Intracellular Carotenoids from Yeast Rhodotorula glutinis CCT-2186

Abstract

Rhodotorula glutinis (R. glutinis) yeasts are natural sources of intracellular carotenoids such as β-carotene, torularhodin, and torulene. Since these yeasts are constituted by a rigid cell-wall structure, the use of energy-saving and high-efficiency cell disruption procedures is critical for carotenoids recovery. A new technology using protic ionic liquids (PILs) was here evaluated as an alternative platform to permeabilize the R. glutinis cells and to improve the extraction of β-carotene, torularhodin, and torulene. The cell disruption ability of 12 highly concentrated aqueous solutions of ammonium-based PILs was determined, evaluating the influence of the relative ion hydrophobicity, solid–liquid ratio, water content, and temperature. Carotenoid extraction yields increased with the hydrophobicity of the PILs (i.e., increase of alkyl chain length of the anion or cation), temperature (from 25 to 65 °C), and PIL concentration (from 75 to 90% v/v). Additionally, to demonstrate the potential of PILs in carotenoids recovery, solvent recycling and carotenoids polishing were carried out using a three-phase partitioning system. The results demonstrate that the use of PILs as cell-disrupting agents can be a simple, efficient, sustainable, and feasible method to recover intracellular carotenoids from microbial biomass.

Fungi as a Potential Source of Pigments: Harnessing Filamentous Fungi

“…A very recent study has discussed the application of protic ionic liquids (PILs) as cell lytic agents to extract and improve the extractive yield of intracellular carotenoids from yeast Rhodotorula glutinis biomass (Mussagy et al, 2019).…”

Aqueous two‐phase systems in Latin America: perspective and future trends

“…However, international collaborations and the development of new disruptive applications will lead to a revolution in the ATPS field in Brazil, as well as in all Latin America, in the coming years. A good example is the growing number of studies using new ATPS composed of ionic liquids, which began to be widely explored in Brazil after the establishment of Jorge F. B. Pereira's research group at UNESP in 2014 36,37,39,41,47‐53 . We believe that, due to the growing biotechnology market in Brazil, the search for new downstream technologies is critical, not only to accomplish high recovery yields, but also to accomplish the more restrictive economic and environmental sustainability standards.…”

Natural Pigments of Microbial Origin

“…The employment of SFE for carotenoids extraction from diverse substrates from laboratory to the commercial scale have been reported (Kitada et al, 2009;Goto et al, 2015). In addition, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE; also known as accelerated solvent extraction-ASE) (Lebeau et al, 2017), pulsed electric field (PEF)-assisted extraction (Martínez et al, 2020), and ionic liquids (IL)-assisted extraction (Mussagy et al, 2019) have been described as efficient and feasible green methods to improve the extraction yield of pigments from microbial biomass. All these techniques have pros and cons ( Table 2) and despite the advances in extraction methodologies, improved green methods are still necessary.…”