Lipids from algae total lipid content

Effect of Culture Aoe. Sample age of Skeletonema affected the fatty acid composition of batch 2 compared to batches 1, 3, and 4 (Table I). At harvest time batches 1, 3, and 4 were two weeks old whereas batch 2 was three weeks old. The total fatty acid content was 35.2, 48.7, 24.2 and 60.1 mg fatty acid/g of dried algae for batches one through four, respectively. Figure 14 indicates the difference in the fatty acid profiles between two and three week old cultures. A sharp increase was observed in the production of C14 0 (260%) and C16 l (230%) for the three week old culture compared to the two week old culture. The relative proportion of C20 5w3 for the three week old culture was smaller compared to the two week culture (0.16 versus 0.07). Ackman et al.(6) reported a decrease in the degree of unsaturation in the lipids of Skeletonema costatum with maturity. Figure 14 indicates that the overall level of lipids were 75% higher in the three week old cultures compared to the two week old cultures. It is also evident from the same figure that the proportion of polyunsaturated lipids decreased with time, and that of the saturated lipids increased. Age comparison on the lipid levels were not studied in the case of Ochromonas. 

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