SPIRULINA
Common Indian Species : Spirulina platensis
Systemistic Position
Class: Myxophyceae or Cyanobacteria
Order: Nostocales
Family: Oscillatoriaceae
Genus : Spirulina
Comments :-
1. Exceptionally valuable alga having tremendous economic importance in view of its high protein content.
2. Since majority of Indian population is vegetarian, Spirulina can be a good meat substitute for these people.
3. It is an important freshwater or terrestrial blue-green alga that is edible.
4. It has helically twisted trichomes.
5. In several countries, including India it is mass-cultured for its high protein content (up to about 60-70%) and nutritional value.
6. Its lipid content varies from 9- 15% (of dry weight basis).
7. The wall is perforated, and the pores in the wall are distributed along partial circles.
8. One great advantage of Spiruling is that ita cultivation does not require fertile or arable land. It can be cultivated in shallow tanks or ponds lined with polythene sheets and filled with waste water.
9. Its production rate is very high, as reported by Vareschi (1977) and also mentioned by H.D. Kumar (1990) that in a lake of Kenya, it has been estimated to be about 15 kcal/m²/day.
10. Its lipids are made of unsaturated fatty acids that do not produce cholesterol.
11. Spirulina is obtained also as a byproduct of soda manufacture from carbonate brine in Mexico and also as a byproduct of urban sewage treatment process in Isreal.
12. Spirulina is quite rich in isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine and valine.
13. Spirulina is a good health food for patients of coronary illness and obesity.
14. Spirulina has been successfully cultivated in wastewater in Lucknow, Varanasi, Nagpur and several other places in India. A lot of work on this aspect has been done in National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow.
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