Abstract
The present work aimed to determine the nutritional composition (ash, protein, fat, carbohydrate content and energy value), phenolic compounds, pigments and organic acids content of three typical red algae from the Northwest of Spain: Chondrus crispus, Mastocarpus stellatus, and Gigartina pistillata; as well as their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Furthermore, the present work compared two extraction techniques: conventional heat assisted extraction (HAE) and high pressure assisted extraction (HPAE) to maximize the yield and the concentration of target compounds. Different independent variables were considered for the response study. Time (t) and percentage of ethanol of the solvent (S) were chosen for both techniques and temperature (T) and pressure (P) were used for HAE and HPAE, respectively. The experiments were designed following a response surface methodology (RSM) approach. The obtained results showed a similar nutritional composition between algae samples: low-fat content and high content of proteins, carbohydrates and energy. All tested algae showed good antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Finally, HEA demonstrated to be the most efficient extraction technique. This study confirms the potential of red algae to be part of the human diet as a source of non-animal protein, due to its nutritional content, phenolic profile, pigments concentration and bioactive properties, which proves that HAE is the optimum technique for the extraction maximization.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilMarine algae, macroalgae or seaweeds, are pluricellular photosynthetic organisms responsible for the primary production in marine ecosystems They provide oxygen and they are considered as food, substrate and shelter sources for other species, constituting an important basis of marine biodiversity [1].Algae have been consumed as food since ancient times, especially in Asian regions such as China, Japan or Korea [2]
This work aims to provide a better understanding of the potential of the extraction techniques and the potential of these three red algae (RA) species as a source of bioactive compounds
The algae were manually washed with distilled water to separate other algae and animals that may have remained adhere to their surface
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilMarine algae, macroalgae or seaweeds, are pluricellular photosynthetic organisms responsible for the primary production in marine ecosystems They provide oxygen and they are considered as food, substrate and shelter sources for other species, constituting an important basis of marine biodiversity [1].Algae have been consumed as food since ancient times, especially in Asian regions such as China, Japan or Korea [2]. From a nutritional point of view, they are characterized by a high content of carbohydrates (
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