Presence of methyl branched fatty acids and saturated hydrocarbons from Botryococcene producing strain of Botryococcus braunii.

Botryococcus braunii (N-836) produced 60 - 73% hydrocarbons on dry weight ba sis, of which C34 botryococcene was
found to be the major hydrocarbon, constituting about 50 – 76% of total content throughout the experimental studies. Major fatty acids present in this organism were C18:1 and C16:0. Saturated hydrocarbons like docosane, hexacosane and
heptacosane were also found to be produced by the organism.
Methyl branched fatty acids, were identified as 16-methyl
heptadecanoic and 5, 9, 13-trimethyl tetradecanoic acids by
GC-MS. Maximum hydrocarbon accumulation was observed during third week of its growth.