Bioactive Compounds from Algae: Extraction, Purification, and Applications

Algae are a diverse group of photosynthetic organisms that can be found in various aquatic environments, including oceans, rivers, lakes, and even in some terrestrial habitats. These organisms have gained significant attention in recent years due to their rich content of bioactive compounds, which are molecules that have positive effects on living organisms. These include fatty acids, phycobiliproteins, chlorophylls, carotenoids, and vitamins that can be widely used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food additives, and ingredients. The natural bioactive compounds from microalgae are attractive and may have great possibilities for commercialization in the near future due to their potential therapeutic activities. These properties include antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and antimalarial effects. Multiple improvements in the purification and analytical tools to characterize these compounds have been reported in recent years, aiming to gain further insight into the complexity of different molecular structures of bioactive peptides and carbohydrates. However, despite the extensive use of algae-derived compounds and extracts in the food industry, there are still no FDA-approved anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic drugs. Technology transfer from the pre-clinical results to the clinical application of secondary metabolites extracted from marine algae is still in its infancy and not fully exploited and more clinical studies are needed to really evaluate the pharmaceutical efficacy algal compounds.