Production of single-cell oil from prickly-pear juice fermentation by Cryptococcus curvatus grown in batch culture.

The biomass of Cryptococcus curvatus, an oleaginous yeast, reached 11 g/l and accumulated 46% (w/w) lipid when grown for 35 h in batch culture on diluted (25%) prickly-pear juice. The C:N ratio of the juice was about 50 g/g. The efficiency of substrate conversion was 0.48 g/g for biomass and 0.22 g/g for lipids. The extracted lipids were mainly oleic (18:1) and palmitic (16:0) acids and the quality of pipid approached that of palm oil.