Paper Title
RETRIEVING ALGAL CHLOROPHYLLS AS A UV-LIGHT BLOCKING AGENT

Abstract
Algae are divided into red algae, brown algae, green algae, and diatoms according to their pigments, among which green algae have the highest chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll is an essential organelle for plant photosynthesis, which contains lutein that blocks short-wavelength light. Thus, this study aimed to obtain chlorophylls from green algae and use them as a UV light-blocking agent with three study objectives: (1) to isolate appropriate algal species for chlorophylls from the Plover Pond located in National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, (2) to extract chlorophylls from the isolated algal species, (3) to manufacture a sunscreen lotion with extracted chlorophylls and evaluate their UV-light blocking efficiency. The results showed the isolated algal species, including a Chlorella-like microalga and a filamentous alga. Samples with the two algae mixtures had the highest content of chlorophyll. The chlorophyll extraction conditions were tested and fixed by adding 2.5 mL of ethanol and 12.5 mL of DI water to the 15 mL algal sample. The mixture was then sonicated for 2 minutes to receive chlorophyll. Then, the obtained chlorophylls are mixed with aloe vera to make chlorophyll-aloe vera gel as a sunscreen lotion. The lotion absorbed 2.43 times higher UV light at 300 nm than the aloe vera gel alone, which implied that the extracted chlorophylls were a potential blocker for the UV light. In addition, the highest content of pentadecane in the algal extracts means the possibility of energy retrieval from those lipid contents. Keywords - Green algae, chlorophylls, cell extraction, extraction conditions, chlorophyll-aloe vera gel