RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: This work aimed at evaluating the influence of organic solvents and stationary phases in the extraction with glass beads and chromatographic purification of carotenoids, especially torularhodin, from Sporobolomyces ruberrimus. RESULTS: The combinations of acetone:hexane (1:1 v/v) and acetone:ethyl ether (1:1 v/v) yielded 171.74 and 172.19 µg of total carotenoids.g of cells-1, respectively. The first blend resulted in the highest percent of cell lysis of 57.4%. Among different proportions of acetone:hexane, the 9:1 v/v mixture showed a significant difference (p < 0.05), resulting in a recovery of total carotenoids of 221.88 µg.g of cells-1. The purification of carotenoids was made by preparative chromatography and the yield of the silica-containing stationary phase was higher (24 µg torularhodin.g cells-1). The analyses of the purified fractions in thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography indicated that the purification of carotenoids, especially of torularhodin, was successfully performed. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of polar (acetone) and non-polar solvents (hexane) and the use of silica as stationary phase was efficient to recover and purify torularhodin from the intracellular pigments of Sporobolomyces ruberrimus.