Spirulina acceptability trials in rats. A study for the “Melissa” life-support system

Abstract

Groups of five rats were fed for sixteen weeks a slightly deficient diet, supplemented with 0

Influência da ingestão de espirulina sobre o metabolismo de ratos exercitados

“…Furthermore, the ingestion values and alimentary efficiency were also similar between both nutritional conditions (control and spirulina), indicating that this alternative source of protein originated from biomass does no impair the growth of animals in the development phase. These results corroborate reports from literature that compare diets based on spirulina and casein (14) and spirulina and "pellet" (30) . The utilization of young animals (30 days at the beginning of experiment) may explain the reduction of the amount of food ingested along the study, once as animals aged, the nutrients requirements for the somatic development may have been decreased.…”

“…The utilization of spirulina as food has been exhaustedly discussed in specific literature (14,(30)(31)(32) . Besides being a good source of proteins, minerals and vitamins, the spirulina presents no toxicity to humans and no impairments to the development of organs and tissue (14,31) .…”

Aquaculture in bio-regenerative life support systems (BLSS): Considerations

“…Spirulina has proven adequate as a sole nutritional source for the culture of terrestrial (Contreras et al, 1979;Ross and Dominy, 1990;Tranquille et al, 1994;Belay et al, 1996;Salazar et al, 1996) and aquatic vertebrates (Beveridge et al, 1989;Nandeesha et al, 1998;Robinson et al, 1990;Takeuchi et al, 2002;Lu and Takeuchi, 2004) at different life stages. The integration of closed loop aquaculture systems (Takeuchi et al, 1997;Blum et al, 2000;Blum, 2003), microbial based aquaculture systems (Avnimelech et al, 1989(Avnimelech et al, , 1994Abraham et al, 2004;Hari et al, 2004), and closed loop Spirulina culture methods for space life support (Binot et al, 1994;Morist et al, 2001) suggest a logical synergism for enhancing and simplifying solid waste treatment and food production in a BLSS. The increased efficiency in carbon recycling would address the problem of identifying appropriate food sources for Nile tilapia culture in a BLSS Lu and Takeuchi, 2004).…”

“…Microbial ecological life support alternatives have been evaluated for the past decade as a bio-regenerative means of reducing waste and using the resulting nutrients to culture Spirulina and higher plants (Binot et al, 1994;Lasseur et al, 1996;Bouma et al, 1998;Cornet and Albiol, 2000;Morist et al, 2001;Poughton et al, 2001;Godia et al, 2002;Cogne et al, 2003;Godia et al, 2004). Spirulina has proven adequate as a sole nutritional source for the culture of terrestrial (Contreras et al, 1979;Ross and Dominy, 1990;Tranquille et al, 1994;Belay et al, 1996;Salazar et al, 1996) and aquatic vertebrates (Beveridge et al, 1989;Nandeesha et al, 1998;Robinson et al, 1990;Takeuchi et al, 2002;Lu and Takeuchi, 2004) at different life stages.…”

Plant bioregenerative life supports: The Italian CAB Project

“…The re-supply cost of planetary bases leads to raise as much as possible the system closure degree and, in this logic, the waste processing is really half of the loop. Fundamental achievements have been done on the subject in the frame of the Micro Ecological LIfe Support System Alternative (MELISSA) project (Tranquille et al 1994, Lasseur et al 1996, Fulget et al 1999, Godia et al 2002, Hendrickx et al 2006. A big issue is posed by the recycling of waste products not directly coming from human metabolism, such as wipes, clothes, food packaging, etc.…”