Table 2.
Health benefits of spirulina as reported in systematic reviews *.
| Effects | Targets | References |
|---|---|---|
| Antiviral | Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) | [156] |
| Hepatitis C virus (HCV) | [156] | |
| COVID (SARS-CoV-2) | [157] | |
| Antioxidant | Free radicals, lipid peroxidation | [158] |
| Anti-inflammatory | NO-synthase, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin-6 | [157,158,159] |
| Anticancer | Inhibition of the proliferation of tumor cells, triggering cell cycle arrest, and induction of apoptosis via different signaling pathways | [160] |
| Antidiabetic | Improving fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, triglycerides, increasing the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol | [161,162] |
| Antimicrobial | Inhibition of bacterial growth via antimicrobial peptides, phenolic compounds (no exact mechanism reported) | [163] |
| Antitoxic | Protection from poisonings from arsenic, cadmium, carbon tetrachloride, deltamethrin, fluoride, hexachlorocyclohexane, iron, lead, mercury (detoxification by absorbtion) | [164] |
| Hypertension | Lowers systolic and diastolic blood pressure (no mechanism reported) | [165] |
| Obesity | Reduces body weight (no mechanism reported) | [166] |
| Hepatoprotection | Improvement of sonographic liver parameters (no mechanism reported) | [167] |
* The amount of dry tableted or capsuled Spirulina ranged from 1 to 8 g per day, and intervention durations ranged from 2 to 12 weeks.