Highly Active Astaxanthin Production from Waste Molasses by Mutated Rhodosporidium toruloides G17

Astaxanthin is increasingly attracting commercial interest for its application in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. This study aimed to produce astaxanthin from molasses with our newly mutated strain of Rhodosporidium toruloides G17 evaluate biological activities produced astaxanthin. To maximize yield, response surface methodology was used so as optimize culture conditions. A maximum yield 1262.08 ± 14.58 µg/L achieved by growing R. a molasses-based medium containing 49.39 g/L reducing sugar, 1.00 urea, 4.15 MgSO4·7H2O, 10.05% inoculum ratio. The then purified studied antioxidant anticancer activities. compound exhibited 123-fold higher activity than α-tocopherol, an IC50 value 0.97 0.01 µg/mL. also showed potent inhibitory ability against following three cancer cell lines: HeLa, A549, MCF7, values 69.07 2.4 µg/mL, 55.60 2.64 56.38 4.1 respectively. indicates that derived promising agent further applications.