EFFICIENT RECOVERY OF BIOFUNCTIONAL PRODUCTS FROM MICROALGAE BY COUNTERCURRENT CHROMATOGRAPHY

Resumen

In recent years, great progress has been made in the identification of a large number of molecules present in the biomass of microalgae and cyanobacteria, mainly thanks to the use of increasingly sensitive analytical techniques. These advances have also gone hand in hand with the biofunctional valorization of these compounds, driven primarily by the use of high-throughput screening bioassays. However, on the road to the commercial exploitation of these valuable compounds, the question of how to extract them efficiently from the cellular matrix to bring them to market is a major challenge. While numerous methods for extracting these compounds from biomass are known, they involve complex and costly purification procedures and have limited applicability at pilot or industrial scales.