Hi everyone. I am measuring carbohydrate content of some microalgae. While I was making the standard curve, I noticed that the cultural media (F2 medium and ESAW medium) can also react to phenol and sulfuric acid, leading to a strong yellow color which affects the final result. Do you have any idea why this happens? And how can I solve the problem? Thanks a lot!
Hi
Before carbohydrate determination remove the media, or extract the carbohydrates through extraction technique then go for carbohydrate determination.
If you are making a measurement of the algae within the culture solution then I would use the blank culture medium as a control for the zero value in your calibration curve. If you are already doing this then all would be fine. Otherwise your results would likely be an over-estimate of carbohydrate in the sample. Alternatively filter, wash and resuspend the material in the sample in a known amount of non-reactive medium.
Hello Ruqian,
Saeed and Anthony are correct. It is best to harvest the cells first, wash the pellet and re-suspend in for e.g distilled water. However, I believe it would be a better approach to dry your sample first and then use the dry biomass for the test. It should give more accurate results.
Kind regards,
Ritesh
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