Pre-Commercial Scale Production of Dunaliella salina: Induction and Extraction of ß-Carotene

It is worthwhile to develop a technique to produce and extract pure natural ß-carotene from locally available marine single cell algae Dunaliella salina and make the technology available for commercial production of this natural pigment. Findings have shown that the highest growth of D. salina was at temperatures ranging between 21.5 – 24.0 ºC, with a salinity of 45 psu and an intensity of illumination 87.4±7.19x103 lux. It was found that using fresh water at a concentration of 1-5% of culture volume to accumulate algae cells was a practical and effective method for collecting and extracting ß-carotene.