Abstract:

Response surface design was employed to optimize the extraction of intracellular lycopene from Neurospora
crassa. The cultured cells of N. crassa 3.1607 were disrupted ultrasonically by milling for the extraction experiments which
were designed to explore the effects of processing variables (extraction solvent, temperature and duration) on the extraction
yield of lycopene. The optimal extraction conditions were determined as 67.48 ℃, 2.51 h and ethyl acetate-acetone (16:25,
V/V) for temperature, time and extraction solvent, respectively. Under these conditions, the maximum predicted yield of
lycopene of 71.227 μg/g was obtained. Experiments conducted under the modified conditions (67 ℃, 2.5 h and ethyl acetate/
acetone ratio = 2:3) resulted in an extraction yield of 71.688 μg/g, which was consistent with the model predicted value.

Key words: Neurospora crassa, lycopene, optimization of extraction process, HPLC, response surface methodology