Spirulina Algae

Area of Technology : Food Industry

Keywords For Search: Spirulina Algae, Food Supplement, Health-care

Description


Spirulina, a microscopic plant, is a type of algae that grows in fresh water. It uses photosynthesis like any green plant for growth. It contains upto 70 protein, 8 lipids and 16 carbohydrates. The specially identified culture of spirulina is kept in aseptic condition in the laboratory in flasks. By serial transformation they are cultured in larger and larger vessels under artificial illumination until ready to be transferred to outdoor culture. The algae are given in open shallow ponds in a nutrient medium helped by regular mechanical agitation to increase photo-synthetic yields. After attaining desirable levels of concentration, part of the biomass is filtered, washed and dried, while the filtrate containing the rich portion of the nutrients is recycled back to the pond. The remaining part of the biomass in the pond continues to grow in the medium. Regular make up of water level, good agitation and nutrient supplementation keep the growth process healthy for several months. The high alkalinity requirement for the growth of spirulina prevents any other algae or organism from growing in the same medium. Unit market price in India: US$ 20/kg.

Areas of Application: Food industry, animal nutrition, pharmaceutical industry: it has wide variety of applications - in medicine as a food supplement and health-care products; for animal nutrition as a specialised animal feed for aquaculture, poultry and sericulture; for producing pharmaceuticals and in cosmetics formulations

Advantages: In contrast to most vegetable matter, spirulina does not have a cell wall made of cellulose thereby making it easily digestible.

Development Status: Comercialised

Legal Protection: Patent

Contact Details:

Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology,
APCTT Building,
C-2 Qutab Institutional Area,
P.O.Box - 4575
New Delhi - 110 016