To extract lipids out of C. curvatus cells, a domestic microwave oven (900W) was modified for this purpose. Through the roof of the oven, a temperature reader, a water-cooled reflux condenser, and a motor driven stirring bar were passed to vessels which were 100 mL three-neck round-bottom flasks. The flask contained 0.5 g freeze dried C. curvatus pellet ground and passed through a 500 m mesh and different solvents, either chloroform/methanol (2:1, v/v) or pure methanol. During the course of extraction ranging from 4 to 24 min, the mixture of pellet and solvent was heated by microwave irradiation. The temperature was controlled at around 90 ◦C while the stirring bar moved at a rotating speed of 850 rpm. Upon completion of the extraction, the mixtures were centrifuged at 5000 × g for 5 min to separate the liquid phase from the yeast cell residues. The supernatant filtered through a 0.45 m filter was then transferred into a 50 mL round-bottom flask for evaporating the solvent using a Rotovap. Oil remaining in the flask was weighed to calculate lipid yield.