CHARACTERIZATION OF OIL AND CAKE FROM Spirogyra porticallis

Aim. Search of healthy and edible alternative oils from algae. Such oil provides many health benefits mainly because of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) form of omega-3 fattyacids and some other micro nutrients in smaller amounts. Methods. Soxhlet extraction method was used to extract the oil with n-hexane as the solvent. The proximate composition was determined by AOAC methods, while the mineral contents were determined by AAS. FTIR and UV-Visible spectra of the oil were run using Agilent- FTIR Spectrometer and UV-Visible Spectrophotometer respectively. Results. The oil yield was very low (1.05%). The proximate composition reveals carbohydrate as the major nutrient in the residue (79.18%), others include lipid (8.03%), crude protein (5.00%), moisture (2.78%), crude fibre (3.01%) and ash (2.00%). The mineral composition reveals high amount of potassium (1602.5 mg/100g) and calcium (632.5 mg/100g) with low levels of phosphorous (14.9 mg/100g) and sodium (12.8 mg/100g). The FTIR spectrum of algae oil is similar to the normal vegetable oil. Stretching vibrations at 2922.2 cm-1 and 2855 cm-1 are attributed to methylene (-CH2--) and methyl (-CH3) groups while absorption bands at 1710 cm-1 and 1744 cm-1 showed carboxylic groups for algae oil and vegetable oil (control) which was attributed to C=O stretching vibrations (esters). The UV-Visible spectrum of algae oil showed two peaks at 408 nm and 660 nm for carotenoids and chlorophyll A respectively, which corroborate with previous studies. Conclusions. We conclude that the oil and cake characterized from Spirogyra porticallis has great potential for medicinal and nutritional usage.