The Recent Advanced in Microalgal Phytosterols: Bioactive Ingredients Along With Human-Health Driven Potential Applications

ABSTRACT

It is noteworthy that phytosterol bioactivities are benefit for human health, promoting their interest to be used in the formulation of enriched and/or functional food ingredients. With the growing phytosterols market for food, pharmaceuticals or cosmetics, new sources than higher plants-related ones are needed, also to allow a sustainable and eco-friendly production. Microalgae fill the requisite to become a new asset for the development of food complements or nutraceuticals. The aim of this study is to update and integrate the knowledge on microalgal phytosterols – content, chemodiversity, bioactivity, biosynthetic pathway – and discussing the interests and challenges offered by microalgae-derived phytosterols for biotechnological applications as bioactive ingredients for functional foods. Generally, the content of phytosterols in microalgae is higher than in higher plants, enhancing the interest of these organisms as cell bio-factories of bioactive compounds for human consumption. However, it is important to fill the gap of knowledge on the phytosterol chemical diversity and distribution of microalgae. A first attempt in comparing the distribution of key enzymes involved in phytosterol biosynthetic pathways in the microalgal realm highlighted some phylogenetic differences and a notable discrimination between cyanophytes and eukaryotic microalgae.

KEYWORDS:

• Microalgae
• phytosterols
• bioactive compounds
• biosynthesis-related enzymes
• human health benefits

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn and by “Antitumor Drugs and Vaccines from the Sea (ADViSE)” project (PG/2018/0494374). The authors acknowledge the Editor and reviewers for their comments on a previous version of the manuscript.

Author contributions

ES: Writing-original draft; AdM: bioinformatics analysis, Writing-original draft; LA: bioinformatics analysis, Validation and Data curation; AS: Writing-review and editing; CS: Conceptualization, Writing-review and editing; CB: Conceptualization, Writing-review and editing; All authors drafted, revised and approved the final manuscript.

There are no conflicts of interest among the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Regione Campania [ADVISE project (PG/2018/0494374)].