National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The waters of the world, oceans, seas, rivers, creeks, lakes and even ice, host a large variety of organisms which are able to use light as the only energy source for their metabolic processes. Algae are a group of relatively simple, plant- like organisms, most of which are capable of performing photosynthesis. They capture light and use its energy to convert CO2 into sugars and oxygen. There are 80,000 to 100,000 different algae species with widely varying characteristics; many of which have been investigated. Algae size ranges from micrometres of unicellular micro-algae to macro-algae, seaweeds of tens of metres. Globally, there is growing interest in algae as production organisms. Algae contain lipids (oil), proteins and carbohydrates (sugars), and especially marine algae have been used as food, feed and fertilisers for centuries. Commercial farming of macro-algae (seaweeds) has a long history, especially in Asia. In the 1950s algae were considered a candidate for protein supply for the increasing world population on a search for biologically active substances began. Algae have been used in as human diets since very early times. In coastal regions seaweeds are used for human food from ancient times, population boom in the last decades has forced man to depend upon seaweeds and other algae to supplement his diet. Researchers in Japan, Germany and USA have shown that nutritive value and per unit area yield of algae is much more than conventional crops. The use of algae for the food and feed market is increasingly relevant as the components of micro-algae (such as fatty acids, colourants, and vitamins) have the potential to be competitive with the same components from other sources. Some important algal species that are used for human food and nutritional supplement are reviewed in this paper.
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