Estimation of the concentrations of cells, astaxanthin and glucose in a culture of Phaffia rhodozyma by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

Summary Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) was employed to estimate the concentrations of cells, astaxanthin and glucose in the culture broth of Phaffia rhodozyma. The culture broth (119 samples) was directly subjected for NIR analysis without any pretreatment. When the data obtained by NIR were compared with those obtained by conventional methods, high correlation coefficients were obtained: 0.98 for cells, 0.99 for astaxanthin and 0.94 for glucose. These results suggest that NIR analysis, which is very simple and requires only 3 to 5 mm for a sample, is applicable to monitor P. rhodozyma cultures.