Quantitative micro-determination of lipid carbon in microorganisms

A method is described for the quantitative determination of the carbon content of lipids extracted from microorganisms. The procedure depends upon conventional solvent extraction of the lipids followed by combustion of all lipid carbon to CO₂. The CO₂ is then measured by infrared gas analysis. The technique is extremely reliable and applicable for samples containing between 10–300 μg carbon. Results comparing the lipid content of various algae determined by this combustion technique show good agreement with the lipid content as determined by conventional gravimetric methods.