Algae Metabolites in Cosmeceutical: An Overview of Current Applications and Challenges

Abstract

Cosmetics are widely used by people around the world to protect the skin from external stimuli. Consumer preference towards natural cosmetic products has increased as the synthetic cosmetic products caused adverse side effects and resulted in low absorption rate due to the chemicals’ larger molecular size. The cosmetic industry uses the term “cosmeceutical”, referring to a cosmetic product that is claimed to have medicinal or drug-like benefits. Marine algae have gained tremendous attention in cosmeceuticals. They are one of the richest marine resources considered safe and possessed negligible cytotoxicity effects on humans. Marine algae are rich in bioactive substances that have shown to exhibit strong benefits to the skin, particularly in overcoming rashes, pigmentation, aging, and cancer. The current review provides a detailed survey of the literature on cosmeceutical potentials and applications of algae as skin whitening, anti-aging, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammation, and antimicrobial agents. The biological functions of algae and the underlying mechanisms of all these activities are included in this review. In addition, the challenges of using algae in cosmeceutical applications, such as the effectiveness of different extraction methods and processing, quality assurance, and regulations concerning extracts of algae in this sector were also discussed.

Mycosporine-Like Amino Acids (MAAs): Biology, Chemistry and Identification Features

“…Mibelle AG Biochemistry developed a natural active compound, called Helioguard 365 ® , which contains MAA porphyra-334 and shinorine from the red seaweed Porphyra umbilicalis . Another MAA extract, named Helionori ® , is also marketed by Gelyma [ 111 ]. Although these ingredients protect in UVA region, they provide minimal protection in the more damaging UVB range.…”

Marine Natural Products: The Important Resource of Biological Insecticide

“…The Photosynthesis of marine plants is the energy source of all living activities in the ocean and provides a material basis for the composition and operation of marine ecological environment [30–33] . Wide variety of algae are the main components of marine plants, unique marine habitats cause differences in algae form and metabolism, making it an important source of marine natural products [34–37] . Marine natural products research on insecticides has gradually increased in recent years, and the number of compounds identified from marine plants have been increasing [38] …”

Fucoxanthin, A Xanthophyll from Macro- and Microalgae: Extraction Techniques, Bioactivities and Their Potential Application in Nutra- and Cosmeceutical Industries

“…Generally, there are two main techniques to extract fucoxanthin, namely liquid solvent extraction (conventional), and supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2), usually use CO2 as a co-solvent (nonconventional) [98][99][100]. In the liquid solvent extraction with organic solvents, the recovery of solvent is a crucial period, mainly because of the environmental and economic problems.…”

“…Fucoxanthin is a xanthophyll exhibiting several health benefits. This compound has remarkable biological properties for human health [109], such as anti-inflammatory activity [108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115], hepatoprotective effect [12,98,[116][117][118], cardioprotective activity [119][120][121], anticancer [26,116,119,[122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131], antidiabetic [75,[132][133][134], antiobesity [135][136][137][138][139], antioxidant [65,131,[140][141][142][143][144][145][146], skin protective effect…”