36B-21

E. M. ESCAMILLA¹, M. Aguilar Torres, V¹, T. D. C. Flores², and I. Torres Pacheco³. (1) Chemical Engineering Dept., Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Ave. Tecnológico y Antonio García Cubas S/N, Celaya, 38010, Mexico, (2) Chemical Engineering Department, Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Ave. Tecnológico y Antonio García Cubas S/N, Celaya, Gto., 38010, (3) Biotecnología, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias, Km. 6 Carr. Celaya-San Miguel de Allende, Celaya, Gto., 38010, Mexico

The production of natural colorants has taken on great importance. One of the greater sources is the bacterium that with the use of the modern technology has increased the production of metabolites of interest. The microbiological production of carotenoids has not been optimized to obtain amounts of production of pigments and recovery of carotenoids that lower costs of the production. The objective of the present work was to establish a process for the production of Zeaxanthin using immobilized cells of Flavobacterium sp. in a fluidized bioreactor. Beginning with a submerged fermentation in shake flask was obtained the optimal culture conditions for the Zeaxanthin production using immobilized cells of Flavobacterium sp. The effects of sucrose, nitrogen, phosphate, magnesium, iron, manganese, cobalt and zinc concentrations were analyzed on the Zeaxanthin and biomass production. An orthogonal design L18 was selected (8 factors with one replica) for this purpose. The microorganism presented a period of the production of Zeaxanthin between 24 to 27 h, later on of initiate the fermentation. The optimal conditions of Zeaxanthin biosynthesis were: sucrose; 10 g/l, corn steep liquor; 5g/l, ammonium chloride; 5g/l, potassium phosphate acid; 8g/, magnesium sulphate; 1.5g/l, zinc sulphate; 0.05M, manganese sulphate; 0.01M and sodium chloride; 4.5g/l. To establish a process of Zeaxanthin production in bioreactor, we selected an orthogonal design L8 (27); the analyzed factors were: pH, temperature, diameter of pellet, airflow, inoculum concentration, natural light (yes or not) and 4.5 g/l of sodium chloride. The most important factors in the Zeaxanthin production were airflow, 3vvm; pH, 7.2 and the addition of sodium chloride, 4.5 g/l. The average Zeaxanthin production using the optimal conditions in bioreactor was of 3.18 g/l, concentration never achieves.

Session 36B, Biotechnology: General
8:30 AM - 12:00 PM, Monday AM Room Hall I-2

2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana