Mahnaz Hadizadeh - Department of Biotechnology, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran
Samaneh Ebrahimi - Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Fahimeh Nemati Mansoor - Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Flavonoids are polyphenolic secondary metabolites that have high nutritional and medicinal value due to their strong antioxidant properties and, consequently, have great economic value. Due to the limited natural resources of flavonoids and also the difficulty and high cost of their chemical synthesis, the use of various biotechnological methods, including culture of cyanobacteria, can be a good economic solution in the production of flavonoids. According to recent researches, the use of elicitors is one of the most important and effective economic strategies to improve cell growth and accumulation of secondary metabolites in the extensive culture of microorganisms. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the potential of hemicellulose as an elicitor in increasing the production of flavonoids in Arthospira. Therefore, Arthrospira was first cultured in optimized Zarok culture medium. The resulting biomass was harvested and dried.To investigate the effect of hemicellulose on flavonoid production, hemicellulose with different concentrations was added to the culture medium and at different times after treatment, biomass separation was performed by centrifugation. Extraction of total flavonoids was performed by extraction with alcohol solvent at high temperature and this extraction was confirmed by thin layer chromatography. The total flavonoid content was then measured by aluminum chloride colorimetric method with a spectrophotometer. The results showed that hemicellulose increased the wet and dry biomass, and also flavonoids of Arthospira compared to the control sample, so that the highest amount of wet biomass (۱۹.۹ g), dry biomass (۰.۶۱ g) and flavonoids of Arthospira (۰.۳۸۶ mg quercetin /mg extract) was achieved under treatment with ۰.۳ mg/ml of hemicellulose on the ۸th day of culture. Taken together, these results indicate the positive effect of hemicellulose on increasing the growth and production of flavonoids in Arthospira

Secondary metabolite, cyanobacteria, eliminator, biomass