The Potential Health Benefits of Algae and Micro Algae in Medicine: A Review on Spirulina platensis

Abstract

Algae are small microscopic unicellular organisms in which, there are two important subtypes (Spirulina platensis and Chlorella vulgaris) that recently have been extensively studied in different fields specially food industry and medicine. Since there is a highly vast data about algae, micro algae and their species, we tried to present a coherent collection of some algae and micro algae classes' medical benefits mostly through Spirulina platensis. Early interest in Spirulina focused mainly on its rich content of protein, vitamins, essential amino acids, minerals, and essential fatty acids. These factors bring the antiinflammation, anticancer, antihyperglycemia, antihypertension and lots of medically useful properties that in the following have been discussed about in detail. The objectives of this paper are categorized in 3 groups. First, reviewing the available literature on the potential health effects of algae and micro algae specially Spirulina platensis, second, providing an insight to the potential implications of the studies reviewed in the context of possible nutritional and therapeutic applications in health management, and third, identifying the fields of interests for future researches. Keywords: Algae, microalgae, spirulina, pigment, phycocyanin, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidative, anti-cancer, side effect, medicine