TY - GEN A1 - Jung, Friedrich A1 - Krüger-Genge, Anne A1 - Waldeck, Peter A1 - Küpper, Jan-Heiner T1 - Spirulina platensis, a super food? T2 - Journal of Cellular Biotechnology N2 - Spirulina platensis, a multicelluar, photosynthetic prokaryote (algae) contains a high amount of proteins, vitamins and minerals superior to many foods as e.g. soybeans. Thus, Spirulina platensis was recognized as nutritious food by the United Nations World Food Conference. Due to the high amount of nutritive ingredients Spirulina has a long history as dietary supplement. In addition, spirulina platensis is also efficiently used as forage with known effects on flesh, egg and plumage color, milk yield and fertility. The versatile utilization of the alga can be explained on the one hand with the nutrient levels and on the other hand with recognized effects as anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory substance. Therefore, this alga is named as “superfood”. Beyond, these algae convert carbon dioxide into organic substances and produce oxygen during their growth in alkaline and saline water thereby not wasting fresh water allowing the production in barren areas. Despite this diverse use of Spirulina platensis due to its beneficial properties, many basic mechanisms on a molecular and cellular level are not well understood and should be explored in future studies. KW - Spirulina KW - health effects KW - dietary supplements KW - liver protection KW - virus infection KW - HIV KW - nutrition KW - animal feeding Y1 - 2019 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-UBICO/frontdoor/index/index/docId/24834 UR - https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-cellular-biotechnology/jcb189012 SN - 2352-3689 SN - 2352-3697 VL - 5 IS - 1 SP - 43 EP - 54 ER -