Microalgal Nutraceutics: Opportunity for Nutritional Market

Sedentary life style and improper food habits make the way for occurrence of a number of chronic diseases like hypertension, cancer, alzheimer, Parkinson and few more. Proper nourishment to attain the nutritional requirement of the people with the ongoing world populations is a global challenge. Sustainable sources of nutraceuticals are needed to solve these problems. Microalgae are simple, photosynthetic, rapidly growing organisms, rich in nutritional profile and contain a variety of bioactive compounds. Hence these can be utilized as a sustainable source of nutraceuticals. The algal biomass and the bioactive compounds from these organisms can be used as ingredients for the preparation of functional foods. The algal nutraceutical market is expected to become $6.91billion by 2026. However, an integrated approach including the improvement of strain, multiplication of the strain using bioreactors and improvement of extraction by using small biorefinery technology is required for the effective utilisation of algal biomass and sustainability of the process.