The use of vermicompost in cultivation and production of Spirulina platensis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Limonolgy Department, Central laboratory for Aquaculture Research, ARC

2 Limonolgy Department, Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research, ARC

3 Plant nutrition, National Research Centre, NRC

Abstract

The cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis is quite spread all over the world due to its high nutritional value. It has been used as a protein source and vitamin supplement in healthy diet, in aquaculture and fisheries. Cyanobacterium Spirulina is capable to grow in various kinds of culture media. Furthermore, decomposed organic and inorganic nutrients media have been proven to be a good source of culture medium for Spirulina by many researchers. In this work, S. platensis was cultivated using dry vermicompost from fish sludge (VCFS) or cow manure (VCCM). 100 g of dry vermicompost from each source (VCFS/VCCM) collected and compared with Aiba and Ogawa liquid medium which was used as a culture medium. The results obtained showed that the highest protein and "chlorophyll a" ratio of S. platensis were observed in the biomass harvested from T2 (VCCM) and T3 (Aiba and Ogawa liquid medium). The highest dried S. platensis biomass was harvested from T2 (VCCM) while the lowest came from T1 (VCFS). The chemical composition ( as % of dry weight) revealed that (VCCM) was higher in total phosphorus, total nitrogen and organic matter than (VCFS).

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