Patent ID: 8563701

Claim:
A method of isolating phycocyanin from blue-green algae comprising: suspending dried, fresh or frozen blue-green algae in a medium consisting of water to produce a cell suspension; disrupting the integrity of the blue-green algae cells in the medium, thereby releasing cytoplasmic contents into the medium, to produce a disrupted cell suspension; separating solid and a first soluble phases of the disrupted cell suspension; contacting the first soluble phase of the disrupted cell suspension with a non-ionic polyaromatic macroreticular adsorbent resin having a surface area of 450 to 900 meters (m) 2 /gram(g); collecting a second soluble phase from the resin to produce a phycocyanin extract comprising less than 5 parts per billion (ppb) microcystins; and optionally dehydrating the phycocyanin extract.