Volatile components of a commercial sample of the blue-green algae Spirulina platensis

An investigation of Cuban Spirulina platensis volatile compounds was done using GC/MS. The isolation techniques applied were: steam distillation, Likens-Nickerson simultaneous distillation-solvent extraction, static and dynamic headspace analysis and liquid-liquid extraction. The characterization of volatile components of S. platensis in Cuba, has not been attempted before and was the main objective of this work, with more than 50 compounds successfully identified of which beta-ionone epoxide, heptadecane and dihydroactinodiolide were the most abundant.