2012 Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 50-53
Vitamin B12 content of an edible cyanobacterium, Nostochopsis sp. was determined to be 140.6±16.2 μg/100 g dry weight by a microbiological method. To evaluate whether the Nostochopsis cells contain vitamin B12 or inactive corrinoid compounds, corrinoid compounds were purified from the cells and then identified as pseudovitamin B12 (97.4±11.8 μg/100 g dry weight) and vitamin B12 (43.2±6.0 μg/100 g dry weight) on the basis of silica gel 60 TLC bioautograms and LC/ESI-MS/MS chromatograms. Vitamin B12 content was significantly increased in the Nostochopsis cells (254.8±17.6 μg/100 g dry weight) grown in the vitamin B12-supplemented medium.