Effect of ethanol on pigments production in chlorella sorokiniana in autotrophic condition

Chlorella is a unicellular green algae that produces the highest amount of chlorophyll among of organisms. Some of important metabolites in chlorella are astaxanthin, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. So far some of chemicals used as inducer for increasing algal metabolites which one of them is ethanol. Effect of ethanol on cell growth and lipid content of microalgae and plants has been studied. In this research, the effect of ethanol on astaxanthin, chlorophyll a and b production in chlorella sorociniana was investigated for the first time. The result of spectrophotometry showed that addition of 10 μl of ethanol (in 100 ml) will enhance the astaxanthin for 1.4 times. However, chlorophyll production changed a little in the presence of 100 μl of ethanol. According to regulatory role of phytohormones in microalgae, it can be conclude that ethanol acts as a signal and regulates some of metabolites production.