Abstract
β-carotene, a member of the carotenoid family, is a provitamin A, and can be converted into vitamin A (retinol), which plays essential roles in the regulation of physiological functions in animal bodies. Microalgae synthesize a variety of carotenoids including β-carotene and are a rich source of natural β-carotene. This has attracted the attention of researchers in academia and the biotech industry. Methods to enrich or purify β-carotene from microalgae have been investigated, and experiments to understand the biological functions of microalgae products containing β-carotene have been conducted. To better understand the use of microalgae to produce β-carotene and other carotenoids, we have searched PubMed in August 2021 for the recent studies that are focused on microalgae carotenoid content, the extraction methods to produce β-carotene from microalgae, and the bioactivities of β-carotene from microalgae. Articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals were identified, screened, and summarized here. So far, various types and amounts of carotenoids have been identified and extracted in different types of microalgae. Diverse methods have been developed overtime to extract β-carotene efficiently and practically from microalgae for mass production. It appears that methods have been developed to simplify the steps and extract β-carotene directly and efficiently. Multiple studies have shown that extracts or whole organism of microalgae containing β-carotene have activities to promote lifespan in lab animals and reduce oxidative stress in culture cells, etc. Nevertheless, more studies are warranted to study the health benefits and functional mechanisms of β-carotene in these microalgae extracts, which may benefit human and animal health in the future.
Highlights
College of Pharmacy, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, China; Department of Nutrition, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA; These authors contributed to this work
The aim of this review is to summarize β-carotene, its extraction methods, its health value, and the presence of other types of carotenoids in different microalgae sources
The ratio of 9-cis-β-carotene and β-carotene is used to predict the antioxidant activity of Dunaliella salina extracts [96]. This method has been used to obtain other compounds such as 25 aroma compounds from sugar cane [100], alkadienes from Botryococcus braunii and γ-linolenic acid from Arthrospira maxima [91], lipids from Nannochloropsis sp. [98]; flavonoids, Vitamin A (VA), and α-tocopherol from Spirulina platensis [99]; and indolic derivative and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from Dunaliella salina [101]. We acknowledge that this may not be a thorough list of supercritical carbon dioxide extraction methods as we have been focused on the studies of biological activities of β-carotene extracted in this manuscript
Summary
Compared with the higher plants, microalgae present a series of advantages such as faster growth, higher yield, and shorter cultivation time They are widely used in the industrial production of bioactive compounds [16]. Β-carotene, a ubiquitous pigment concerned with the photosynthetic process in microalgae, has shown a variety of bioactivities [21] It is the most abundant dietary provitamin A that can be converted into vitamin A (VA, retinol), which is a micronutrient for human health [22]. Various methods such as solvent extraction and supercritical fluid extraction have been developed to extract carotenoids from microalgae for mass production [29] Despite previous concerns such as efficiency, high solvent-consumption, and long treatment times [30], methods have been evolved to solve these problems.
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