Promoting increased Chlorella sorokiniana Shih. et Krauss (Chlorophyta) biomass production using Moringa oleifera Lam. leaf extracts

Abstract

Chlorella sorokiniana Shih. et Krauss, a unicellular green alga was assayed to assess its to promotion potentials response of aqueous and ethanolic leaf extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam. C. sorokiniana grown in 200 ml aliquots of modified basal medium for two weeks: was treated with the aqueous and ethanolic extracts at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% concentrations, respectively. A control was set up without Moringa extract and each treatment replicated thrice. The increases in biomass (individuals/mL) were monitored at two - day intervals. Both aqueous and ethanolic leaf extracts had appreciable promoter effects (61.49 and 95.55%, increases respectively) over the control. The ethanolic exhibited more growth activity (21.09%) than the aqueous extract. The promoter effects of both extracts increased proportionally with the increase in levels of concentration with time. There were significant differences in the interactive effects of the extracts, concentration and day (duration) (p<0.05). The findings of this study indicate the potential use of the aqueous and ethanolic leaf extracts of M. oleifera as possible enrichments for C. sorokiniana growth medium.

Keywords: Moringa, leaf extracts, Chlorella, medium enrichment, food supplement.

African Journal of Biotechnology, Vol 13(53) 4720-4725