Table 2.
The health benefits and mode of action of various microalgae derived bioactive metabolites
| Health beneficial application | Microalgae | Bioactive compound | Target/mode of action | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antioxidant activity | Chlorella vulgaris | Phenolics and flavanoids | Radicle scavenging activity | Mtaki et al. (2020) |
| Dunaliella salina | β-carotene | Inhibits ROS production | Fujitani et al. (2001) | |
| Haematococcus pluvialis | Astaxanthin | Antioxidant activity | Ciccone et al. (2013) | |
| Scenedesmus sp. | Lutein | Maintain homeostasis | Sánchez et al. (2008) | |
| Porphyridium sp. | Sulfated polysaccharides | Inhibits ROS formation | Huheihel et al. (2001) | |
| Chlorella vulgaris | Phenolics | Maintain homeostasis | Goiris et al. (2012) | |
| Nannochloropsis oculata | Peptides | Antioxidant activity | Samarakoon et al. (2013) | |
| Spirulina maxima | Phenolic compounds | Radicle scavenging activity | El-Baky et al. (2009) | |
| Nannochloropsis sp. | Phenolics | Radicle scavenging activity | Abd El-Baky et al. (2010) | |
| Gymnodinium mikimotoi | Monogalactosyl diacylglycerol | Inhibits ROS production | Meirless et al. (2003) | |
| Stephanodiscus sp. | Digalactosyl diacylglycerol | Enhanced cell differentiation | Hossain et al. (2005); Maeda et al. (2009) | |
| Scytosiphon lomentaria | Protein extract | Inhibits ROS production | Ahn et al. (2004) | |
| Anti-inflammatory activity | Spirulina platensis | Phycocyanin | Suppresses IL-6, 8 and increases TGF-β1 production, inhibits COX-2 expression | Hao et al. (2018); Yoshimoto et al. (2019) |
| Chlorella vulgaris | Protein hydrolysates | Modulates cytokines | Morris et al. (2007) | |
| Chlorella vulgaris | Sterols | Anti-inflammatory activity | Lopes et al. (2013) | |
| Anabaena cylindrical | Vitamin K | Prevent from toxic agents/pollutants | Tarento et al. (2018) | |
| Chlorococcum sp., & Scenedesmus obliquus | Linolenic acid | Anti-inflammatory activities and reduces acne | Day et al. (2009) | |
| Chlorella vulgaris & Chlorococcum sp. | Canthaxanthin | Anti-inflammatory actions | Charles et al. (2019) | |
| Chlorella zofigiensis & Dunaliella salina | Astaxanthin | Anti‐inflammatory properties | Borowitzka (2013) | |
| Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp., & Spirulina sp. | Phycobiliproteins, hormone‐like bioactive peptides | Inhibits inflammation | Gong et al. (2011) | |
| Nannochloropsis oculata | Docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) | Inhibits pro-inflammatory prostaglandin E2, NO, TNF-a, IL-6 | Nauroth et al. (2010) | |
| Chlorella stigmatophora | Sulfated polysaccharide | Immunosuppressive activity | Matsui et al. (2003) | |
| Antibacterial activity | Skeletonema costatum | Unsaturated, saturated long chain fatty acids | Acts on Vibrio sp. | Naviner et al. (1999) |
| Euglena viridis | Organic extracts | Acts on Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, Edwardsiella, Vibrio, and Escherchia coli | Das et al. (2005) | |
| Dictyosphaerium pulchellum | Methanolic extracts | – | Bhadury and Wright (2004) | |
| Chlorococcum sp. | Aqueous extracts | – | Bhadury and Wright (2004) | |
| Chlorella vulgaris | Methanolic and hexanolic extracts | Acts on Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus subtilis, Escherchia coli, and Salmonella typhi | Ghasemi et al. (2007) | |
| Chlorella pyrenoidosa | Saturated and unsaturated fatty acids | Acts on Propionibacterium acnes | Sibi (2015) | |
| Chlorella humicola | Pigments (carotenoid, chlorophyll) | Acts on Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherchia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Vibrio cholera | Bhagavathy et al. (2011) | |
| Scenedesmus obliquus | Long chain fatty acids | Acts on Staphylococcus aureus, Escherchia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella sp. | Catarina Guedes et al. (2011) | |
| Rhodella reticulate | Extracellular sulfated polysaccharides | Acts on Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Bacillus cereus, and Salmonella typhimurium | Najdenski et al. (2013) | |
| Antiviral activity | Navicula directa | Polysaccharide | Inhibits hyaluronidase | Lee et al. (2006) |
| Chlorella autotrophica | Sulfated polysaccharides | Inhibits replication | Fábregas et al. (1999) | |
| Cochlodinium polykrikoide | Extracellular sulfated polysaccharides | Inhibition of cytopathic effect | Hasui et al. (1995) | |
| Porphyridium cruentum | Highly sulfated polysaccharide | HSV-1, HSV-2 & Vaccina | Huang et al. (2001); Raposo et al. (2013) | |
| Navicula directa | Sulfated polysaccharide | HSV-1, HSV-2 & Influenza-A | Lee et al. (2006); Ahmadi et al. (2015) | |
| Gyrodinium impudicum | p-KG03 exopolysaccharide | Inhibition of cytopathic effect | Yim et al. (2004) | |
| Antifungal activity | Chlamydomonas reinhardtii | Methanolic extracts | Acts on Candida kefir, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus fumigatus | Ghasemi et al. (2007) |
| Amphidinium sp. | Karatungiols | Acts on Aspergillus niger, and Trichomonas foetus | Washida et al. (2006) | |
| Prorocentrum lima | Polyether compounds | – | Bhadury and Wright (2004) | |
| Haematococcus pluvialis | Butanoic acid and methyl lactate | Acts on Candida albicans | Santoyo et al. (2009) | |
| Anti-cancerous activity | Botryococcus braunii & Microcystis aeruginosa | Lipids | Cytotoxic activity against prostate, SHSY-5Y neuroblastoma and AGS gastric adenocarcinoma cell line | Inan et al. (2021) |
| Chlorella pyrenoidosa | Polypeptide CPAP | Induces apoptosis | Wang et al. (2013) | |
| Chlorella vulgaris | Polypeptide | Antiproliferative activity and arrests cell cycle at G1 phase | Sheih et al. (2010) | |
| Sterols | Stabilizes phospholipid bilayers | Luo et al. (2015) | ||
| Pavlova lutheria | Phytosterols | Inhibits colon cancer development | Ahmed et al. (2015) | |
| Chaetoceros calcitrans & Dunaliella tertiolecta | Vitamin D | Inhibits prostrate cell cancer growth | Giammanco et al. (2015) | |
| Chlorella pyrenoidosa | Mycosporinelike amino acid (MAA) | Inhibits cancerous cell growth | Kim and Kang (2011) | |
| Chlorella stigmatophora | Polysaccharides | Tumoricidal activity | De Morais et al. (2015) | |
| Chlorella sp. | Chlorophyll | Cytotoxic activity towards tumoral cells | Mishra et al. (2011); Khanra et al. (2018) | |
| Spirulina limacinum, Spirulina bacillaris & Chlorella cohnii | Phenolics | Cytotoxic special effects against human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cells | Gürlek et al. (2019) | |
| Scenedesmus sp., Chlorella pyrenoidosa & Chlorococcum sp. | Exopolysaccharides | Inhibits human colon cancer cell lines proliferation | Zhang et al. (2019) | |
| Dunaliella tertiolecta | Violaxanthin | Antineoplastic effects | Abida et al. (2013) | |
| Isochrysis galbana | (1 → 3, 1 → 6)-β-D-glucan sulfated exopolysaccharide | Cytotoxic against lymphoma cells | Sadovskaya et al. (2014) | |
| Arthrospira platensis | Extracellular polysaccharide | Cytotoxic against kidney and colon cancer cell line | Challouf et al. (2011) | |
| Anti-hypertensive & anti-hyperlipidemic activity | Nannochloropsis oculata | Protein extract | Inhibits angiotensin I-converting enzyme | Samarakoon et al. (2013) |
| Chlorella vulgaris | Polypeptide | Inhibits angiotensin I-converting enzyme | Sheih et al. (2009) | |
| Nanochloropsis sp. | Sterols | Reduces blood cholesterol levels in hyper and normocholesterolemic | Lopes et al. (2013) | |
| Chlorella, Spirulina & Pavlova | Vitamin B | Reduces cholesterol | Becker et al. (2004) | |
| Chlorella sp. & Dunaliella sp. | Glycoprotein | Inhibits angiotensin I activities and reduces LDL-cholesterol | Caporgno and Mathys (2018) | |
| Chlorococcum sp., Dunaliella primolecta & Spirulina sp. | γ-linoleic acid | Reduces blood pressure and prevents from heart diseases | Long et al. (2018); Koller et al. (2014) | |
| Chlorella vulgaris & Nannochloropsis sp. | Eicosapentaenoic acid | Regulates blood pressure, reduces blood clotting and prevents from heart diseases | Chiranjeevi and Venkata Mohan (2016) | |
| Chlorella sorokiniana & Chlorococcum sp. | β-carotene | Declines low-density lipoprotein | Galasso et al. (2019) | |
| Spirulina platensis & Chlorella vulgaris | Protein extracts and hydrolysates | Inhibits activity of angiotensin I-converting enzyme and acetylcholinesterase | Alzahrani (2018) | |
| Anti-diabetic activity | Porphyridium sp. | Liquid extract | Inhibits α-glucosidase | Priatni et al. (2021) |
| Nannochloropsis sp. & Pavlova salina | Polyunsaturated fatty acids | Anti-hyperglycemic, reduces blood glucose | Rohit et al. (2018) | |
| Dunaliella salina & Isochrysis sp. | Fucoxanthin and Zeaxanthin | Suppresses hyperglycaemia, prevents from diabetic diseases | Gong et al. (2016) | |
| Chlorococcum sp. & Chlorella fusca | Lutein | Prevents from diabetic retinopathy | Rasmussen and Johnson (2013); Liu et al. (2017) | |
| Chlorella vulgaris & Haematococcus pluvialis | Astaxanthin | Reduces diabetes | Capelli et al. (2013) | |
| Cosmospora sp. SF-5060 | Aquastatin A | Hypogluycaemic activity | Seo et al. (2009) | |
| Phaeodactylum tricornutum | Fucoxanthin | Suppresses hyperglycaemia | Peng et al. (2011) |