Promising Polyunsaturated Oils from Marine Haptophyta

Energy and Environment play a key role for the sustainability and survival of a society. At present these are the two major concerns in current world. Rapidly increasing energy demands and decreasing healthy environmental conditions pose a serious threat to future generations of humanity. The quest to find clues for prediction of future environment from past information and search for alternate energy sources has already begun. In this regard, the photosynthetic marine micro algae and the organic compounds produce by them are considered as the potential targets to address the environmental challenges. Poly-unsaturated long chain ketones (PULCAs) are such compounds produced by few species of marine Haptophyta. These compounds are identified to be unique lipids which are considered as potential biofuel precursors. The PULCAs are generally called as alkenones and are comprised of more than 40% of total lipid content in haptophyte species like E.huxley and Gephyrocapsa. Current paper provides a brief overview on these compounds.