Chlorella vulgaris: a perspective on its potential for combining high biomass with high value bioproducts

Abstract

The depletion of fossil fuel reserves, concerns over global warming and the high demand for natural functional foods and products have valorized microalgae as an alternative renewable feedstock. Over the past few decades, extensive research has focussed on microalgae, driven by their increasing applications and future potential. Thus, this review reports on one of the most significant pioneer microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris Beyerinck. The value of and prospects for this microalga for various applications are presented in relation to its biochemical components. Since metabolic changes occur when microalgae are cultivated under different environmental conditions, an overview of the effects of some environmental parameters on C. vulgaris is presented with respect to biomass production enhancement along with the accumulation of molecules of interest while maintaining feasible production costs.

Chlorella vulgaris microalgae in Ruminant Nutrition: a Review of the Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value

“…C. vulgaris is an autotrophic alga but it can also be produced under heterotrophic conditions (Kotrbáček et al, 2015;Madeira et al, 2017;Ru et al, 2020). C. vulgaris is a freshwater, unicellular, green alga belonging to the family Chlorellaceae.…”

“…The nutritional composition of C. vulgaris (Table 1) is generally well known The chemical composition of C. vulgaris depends on the strain and culturing environmental conditions like medium nutrients, temperature, light intensity, pH, and salinity (Ru et al, 2020).…”

“…contains a high concentration of protein and biological value, determined by its essential amino acids content and low ruminal degradability, for ruminants (Kholif et al, 2017d). The relatively high protein content of C. vulgaris is in contrast with the limited nutritive value of its protein for non-ruminants due to its content of non-protein nitrogen that is composed of nucleic acids, nitrogen-containing cell walls, and amines; however, ruminant can utilize it with high efficiency (Madeira et al, 2017;Ru et al, 2020). Ruminant can utilize non-protein nitrogen, by virtue of ruminal bacteria intervention, to synthesize protein with high biological value, evident by balanced amino acids and degradability.…”

“…Nevertheless, in many experiments, it was found that even a very low, economically acceptable addition of Chlorella biomass to animal feed can positively influence growth and performance. This is due to the presence of pigments, antioxidants, provitamins, vitamins, and a growth substance known as the Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF), which can stimulate or enhance the immune system, increase feed intake and utilization, and promote reproduction (Kotrbáček et al, 2015;Madeira et al, 2017;Ru et al, 2020). The CGF is a growth substance, which can induce the immune system, improve feed consumption and utilization, promote reproduction, and modulate cytokine production (Kotrbáček et al, 2015).…”

Potential of Chlorella as a Dietary Supplement to Promote Human Health

“…Using large-scale cultivation technology, C. vulgaris and C. pyrenoidosa are prepared as commercial sources for dietary supplements [11]. Studies have shown that Chlorella cells contain a variety of nutrients and bioactive compounds that promote human health and prevent certain diseases [10,12], suggesting that Chlorella-derived natural compounds might provide substitutes for synthetic compounds or drugs. The content of natural compounds in Chlorella differs greatly between culture conditions and Chlorella species [13,14].…”