Using the same apparatus, when dried C. curvatus cells were mixed with methanol at a ratio of 1:50, a recovery of 65.5% of cellu- lar lipid was observed in 4 min (Fig. 7). With the same microwave time but increasing the solvent volume to a cell/solvent ratio to
1:100, an increase of 12.5% of lipid extracted was detected. With the same cell/solvent ratio of 1:100 but an extended time of 12 min, no significant improvement of lipid recovery was observed. Thus, this preliminary study indicated that methanol itself is a good solvent for extracting yeast lipids through MAE. With 4 min microwave time and a cell to solvent ratio of 1:100, methanol extracted 78.1% of total lipids out of the cells.