Evaluation the Phytochemicals and Nutritional Characteristics of Some Microalgae Grown in Egypt as Healthy Food Supplements

There is a great interest toward natural functional nutraceuticals that possess therapeutic properties in preparing healthy food products. Spirulina platensis, Turbinaria decurrens and Cystoseira Fucales were evaluated for their chemical composition, minerals content as well as their nutritional properties such as polyphenols, vitamins and pigments and their potential utilization in preparing some functional food products. The results showed that the Spirulina platensis was a rich source of protein (46.48%) and essential amino acids (424.02 mg/g protein) whereas Turbinaria decurrens and Cystoseira Fucales had the highest carbohydrate content, and ash. The investigated algae could be considered as a good source for K, Ca, Na, Fe and Zn. The phenolic compounds of the algae methanolic extracts varied from 2 to 14 mg g−1 dry weight as gallic acid equivalent and the highest DPPH radical scavenging was found for Spirulina platensis extract (15.66%). Spirulina platensis had the highest vitamin C (13.30 mg/100g), vitamin E (145.10 mg/100g), total chlorophyll (1648.89 µg/g), total carotenoid (1854.49 µg/g) and anthocyanin (0.540 µg/g) values. Cystoseira Fucales had higher vitamin A and vitamin D content than Turbinaria decurrens. Panelists accepted the sensory properties of the noodle and seasonings powder prepared from the different algae and the overall acceptability was described as “like very much” for both dried noodles and seasonings powder and “like moderately” for cooked noodles. Such results indicated that microalgae can be used as a promising source of multifunctional compounds in preparing functional food products.