Toxicity assessment of phycocyanin - a blue colorant from blue green alga Spirulina platensis.

Akhilender Naidu, K. and Sarada, R. and Manoj, G. and Khan, M. Y. and Mahadevaswamy, M. and Viswanatha, S. and Narasimhamurthy, K. and Ravishankar, G. A. and Leela, Srinivas (1999) Toxicity assessment of phycocyanin - a blue colorant from blue green alga Spirulina platensis. Food Biotechnology, 13 (1). 51-56, 35 ref..

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Abstract

Phycocyanin, a blue colorant from the cyanobacterium (blue green alga) Spirulina platensis was evaluated for its safety as a natural food colour by toxicity evaluation studies in albino rats. Acute and subchronic studies on phycocyanin were conducted on both sexes of albino rats. Phycocyanin at high concn. (0.2-5.0 g/kg body wt. (w/w)) did not induce any symptoms of toxicity nor mortality of the animals. Feeding of low concn. of phycocyanin at 0.5-4.0 g/kg in the diet for 14 wk did not affect food intake or body wt. gain of phycocyanin-fed rats compared to control animals. Terminal values for absolute and relative wt. of vital organs, haematology and serum enzyme did not reveal any differences between treated and control groups. Overall, results suggested that consumption of phycocyanin, a natural colorant from Spirulina platensis, did not result in adverse effects in experimental animals.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	ALGAE-; COLORANTS-; FOOD-SAFETY-ADDITIVES; PIGMENTS-; TOXICITY-; PHYCOCYANIN-; SPIRULINA-PLATENSIS
Subjects:	500 Natural Sciences and Mathematics > 07 Life Sciences > 04 Microbiology > 01 Algae 600 Technology > 08 Food technology > 31 Food Additives
Divisions:	Dept. of Biochemistry Plant Cell Biotechnology
Depositing User:	Food Sci. & Technol. Information Services
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2012 06:04
Last Modified:	03 Oct 2018 09:03
URI:	http://ir.cftri.res.in/id/eprint/7743

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