Microalgae are one of the renewable sources for pharmaceutical compounds as well as biofuels. The microalgae sector is growing rapidly due to the scarcity of substrate sources, more yields, and the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status of compounds associated with microalgae. Due to this GRAS status, the algal products are beneficial not only for the pharmaceutical but also for the food industry. In this review, insights into the different process aspects and obstacles of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical compounds derived from microalgae on large-scale are discussed. Various culture production methods like photoautotrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic processes have been included and recent advances in metabolic strategies for upgrading the microalgal technology for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical compounds are highlighted as well as the prospects in the field presented. Overall, this review discusses the question, how microalgae can be a great advantage for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry.
In current study isolates of two native microalgae species were screened on the basis of growth kinetics and lipid accumulation potential. On the basis of data obtained on growth parameters and lipid accumulation, it is concluded that Scenedesmus dimorphus has better potential as biofuel feedstock. Two of the isolates of Scenedesmus dimorphus performed better than other isolates with respect to important growth parameters with lipid content of ~30% of dry biomass. Scenedesmus dimorphus was found to be more suitable as biodiesel feedstock candidate on the basis of cumulative occurrence of five important biodiesel fatty acids, relative occurrence of SFA (53.04%), MUFA (23.81%) and PUFA (19.69%), and more importantly that of oleic acid in its total lipids. The morphological observations using light and Scanning Electron Microscope and molecular characterization using amplified 18S rRNA gene sequences of microalgae species under study were also performed. Amplified 18S rRNA gene fragments of the microalgae species were sequenced, annotated at the NCBI website and phylogenetic analysis was done. We have published eight 18S rRNA gene sequences of microalgae species in NCBI GenBank.
Algal biofuels are far from a commercial reality due to the technical challenges associated with their growth and lipid extraction procedures. In this study, we investigated the effect of 4 different media and 5 different nitrogen sources at 5 levels on the growth, biomass and lipid productivity of Scenedesmus sp and Chlorella sp The hypothesis was that a nitrogen source can be identified that provides enough stress to accumulate lipids without compromising significantly on biomass and lipid productivity. A maximum specific growth rate and doubling per day have been observed with algal species using modified BG-11 medium. Among the tested nitrogen sources, 2.5 mM potassium nitrate as a nitrogen constituent of modified BG-11 medium resulted in higher lipid content and productivity in the case of S. dimorphus (29.15%, 15.449 mg L−1day−1). Another noteworthy outcome of the present study lies in the usage of a smaller amount of the nitrogen source, i.e., 2.5 mM, which is found to be 7 times less than the standard BG11 media (17.60 mM sodium nitrate).
In the present work, the variability, interrelationship, and divergence pattern of twenty six accessions of onion at high altitude were studied based on quantitative and qualitative traits. Multivariate analysis was used to classify the twenty six onion accessions. Cluster I contained two genotypes, cluster II contained ten genotypes, cluster III contained two and cluster IV contained twelve genotypes. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between I and IV, and the lowest between I and II. The maximum intra-cluster distance was observed in Cluster II and the minimum in cluster III. The intra-cluster distance in all the four clusters was relatively low, indicating that genotypes within the same cluster were closely related. Based on cluster means, cluster 1 is the best in terms of number of leaves and neck thickness, cluster II best in terms of leaf width, Double/deformed bulb, Polar diameter, equatorial diameter, average bulb weight and bulb yield kg/plot, cluster III is the best in terms of days to maturity, TSS and dry matter content and cluster IV which is best in terms of plant height, leaf length and chlorophyll content. Considering cluster distance and cluster mean, the intra cluster distance revealed that the genotypes from the cluster II and genotypes from the cluster IV may be selected as parents for future breeding program. It was found that, PCA extracted three PCs and contributed 95.61 % of the variation out of which PC1 accounted 77.52 % variability, PC2 for 10.72 % and PC3 7.38 % variability of the variance among 26 accessions. The greater part of the variance was accounted for by other traits such as average bulb weight, bulb yield, leaf length, equatorial diameter and TSS. The high diversity found in the accessions shows great potential for improving qualitative as well as quantitative traits in onion.
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