New Approaches for the Use of Non-conventional Cell Disruption Technologies to Extract Potential Food Additives and Nutraceuticals from Microalgae

Abstract

In recent decades, microalgae species have focused the attention of several research groups and food industry as they are a great source of nutritionally valuable compounds. The use of environmentally friendly technologies has led to researchers and food industry to develop new alternative processes that can extract nutritionally valuable compounds from different sources, including microalgae. This note describes the potential use of some non-conventional methods including sub- and supercritical fluid extraction, pulsed electric fields, high-voltage electric discharges, high-pressure homogenization, ultrasound- and microwave-assisted extraction, which involve cell disruption to recover nutritionally valuable compounds from microalgae and can help to comply with criteria of green chemistry concepts and sustainability.