2.3. Extraction of lipids
Extraction of total lipids was carried out using Bligh and Dyer
method employing chloroform:methanol (2:1 v/v) as solvents
while neutral lipids were extracted with n-Hexane employing solvent
extraction procedure using Soxhlet apparatus (Lee et al.,
2010; Venkata Mohan et al., 2011). Prior to extraction, the dried algae-
biomass was sonicated (30 min; 20 kHz) in requisite solvent /
solvent mixture (chloroform:methanol/n-Hexane) and transferred
to thimbles made with Whattman filter paper No. 1 for neutral lipids
where as the biomass was directly placed in to the reaction
vials for total lipids extraction. The solvent mixture was refluxed
for 5 h (30 C) and concentrated in a rotavapor followed by vacuum
drying with a temperature controlled oil bath (120 C) and cooled
to room temperature (Devi and Venkata Mohan, 2012).