Spirulina

Description :   Spirulina is a blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, which acts as an important nutraceutical.

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Spirulina is a blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, which acts as an important nutraceutical. It is considered as one of the most important nutrient dense supplementary products of great health importance.

Nutritional profile

• It contains significant amount of carbohydrates but does not contain enough fibre
• It is considered as a rich source of plant-based protein and known as “lean, green, protein machine". It contains various amino acids, which are essentially required for supporting general growth and development
• It contains unsaturated fatty acids
• It contains several vitamins like Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine and folic acid
• It also contains various trace elements like calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, iron and magnesium
• It contains numerous biologically active compounds responsible for exerting antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic activities, which include flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, saponin and phenol

Biological properties

Antioxidant properties

• It helps to prevent oxidative damages of the body by scavenging free radicals
• It is also associated with activating antioxidant enzyme and inhibits free radical and ROS induced oxidation
• It helps to inhibit lipid peroxidation and hence reduces oxidative stress
• It helps to protect important biological substances of body especially DNA from oxidation and prevents their damage
• It is also related with increasing the activity of catalase and superoxide dismutase, which are allied with catalyzing the dismutation of superoxide radicals that protect the body from reactive oxygen species
• According to recent researches, it has seen that spirulina plays significant role in preventing the damages of skeletal muscle caused by exercise induced oxidative stress (Wu et al., 2016)

Anti-inflammatory properties

• Phycocyanin is the principal component of spirulina exerts anti-inflammatory activities
• It is associated with inhibiting the production of inflammatory signaling molecules and prevents inflammation, pain and swelling
• It helps to decrease the risk of developing chronic diseases by reducing the prevalence of inflammatory events

 Immunomodulatory properties

• It is associated with stimulating the production of antibodies
• It also helps to regulate (up regulate or down regulate) the expression of genes (cytokine encoding gene), which is responsible for inducing immunomodulatory responses
• It helps to regulate ERK1/2 pathway that helps to control the cell cycle machinery that involves cell growth as well as cell cycle progression
• It also regulates p38 pathways, which is associated with releasing cytokines from neutrophils and macrophages
• It plays significant role in controlling various cellular process like proliferation, apoptosis, embryonic development etc.

Anti-carcinogenic properties

• It helps to reduce the susceptibility of developing cancers by suppressing malignant cell growth through inducing apoptosis (as mentioned above) and helps to prevent their metastasis
• It also helps to reduce tumor size
• It is mainly effective against oral cancers and helps to treat oral submucous fibrosis

Antitoxic properties

• It has potent antitoxic properties, which help to protect the body from the harmful effects of heavy metals and pollutant
• It shows strong effect against some pollutants like arsenic, lead, iron, mercury and fluoride

Health benefits

Role on metabolism

• It is closely related with boosting up the entire metabolic processes of the body
• It mainly helps to increase BMR (basal metabolic rate) that increases calorie expenditure
• It also helps to support general growth of the body as it is rich in protein and acts as energy booster as it provides desirable calorie

Role on mental health

• It helps to prevent mood related disorders
• It has seen that spirulina is a good source of tryptophan (an amino acid), which is closely related with stimulating serotonin production that helps to promote mental health by regulating mood as well as happiness
• It also helps to prevent anxiety and depression

Role on children health

• Its protein content is accountable for promoting overall growth and development of children
• It plays important role in enhancing tissue synthesis
• It also helps in the growth of central nervous system and improves cognitive ability as well as concentration
• It helps to improve eyesight
• It also helps in muscle    Read more