SPIRULINA

A summary

Spirulina spp. are cyanobacteria which occur widely in moist environments. Massive quantities grow in the alcaline waters of certain tropical lakes (Lake Tchad, East African Rift lakes, Lake Texcoco in Mexico). Large quantities are also cultivated in artificial ponds in regions with a high average temperature and a high insolation (China, India, Thailand, California). The species used in mass cultivation is exclusively Spirulina platensis. Spirulina is a multicellular organism, it consists of helically shaped filaments of up to 300 micron length. Spirulina is harvested by sieves and usually spraydried to a dark green powder. Spirulina has an old - albeit exotic - tradition as food. The Aztecs harvested it from the brackish lake which surrounded their capital Tenochtitlan (DIAZ DE CASTILLO). The ready availability of this food may have been the basis of the political power of the Aztecs (FARRAR, W.V., 1966). On the shores of lake Tchad Spirulina is collected in depressions, dried and used as food (DANGEARD, 1940). Since 1980 Spirulina has become an very successful food supplement. This may be due to various reasons. An appetite depressing effect claimed for Spirulina in sales promotion texts could only partly be confirmed by a clinical study (BECKER, 1986). The intake of Spirulina was found to be cholesterol lowering by NAKAYA (1988). This was confirmed by DE RIVERA (1993) who also found a preventive effect of Spirulina on the induced fatty liver. Iron from Spirulina is readily bioavailable (JOHNSON, 1986). An immunostimulatory effect of intracellular polysaccharide fractions of Spirulina was found by PULZ (1993). HAYASHI (1993) observed that an aqueous extract of Spirulina platensis affected viral penetration of HeLa cells in a dose-dependent manner. The extract inhibited virus specific protein synthesis without suppressing host cell protein synthesis.

References

DIAZ DE CASTILLO, BERNAL: Historia verdadera de la conquista de la nueva Espagna, written before 1580, published in the 17th century, edition consulted here: Coleccion Austral, 7th. ed. p. 191 and 377 FARRAR, W.V. 1966: Tecuitlatl: A glimpse of Aztec food technology Nature, July 23, 1966, p. 341

DANGEARD, P., 1940: Sur une algue bleue alimentaire pour l'homme: Arthrospira platensis (Nordst.) Gomont. Actes Soc. Linn. Boreaux Extr. Procés-verbaux. 91:39-41

BECKER, E.W. et al., 1986: Clinical and biochemical evaluations of the alga Spirulina with regard to its application in the treatment of obesity. Nutr. Reports International, April 1986 vol. 33 No. 4, p. 565-574 HAYASHI, K. et al., 1993: An Extract from Spirulina platensis is a Selective Inhibitor of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Penetration into HeLa Cells. Phytotherapy Research, vol. 7, 76-80(1993)

JOHNSON, PH. E. et al., 1986: Availability of Iron to Rats from Spirulina Nutrition Research, vol. 6, pp. 85-94

NAKAYA, N., 1988: Cholesterol lowering effect of Spirulina. Nutrition Reports Interantional, June 1988 vol. 37, no. 6, p. 1329-1337 DE RIVERA, C.G., 1993: Preventive Effect of Spirulina maxima on the fatty liver induced by a fructose rich diet. Life Sciences Journal, vol. 53(1) 57-61

PULZ, O. et al., 1993: Microalgae as a source of pharmacologically valuable polysaccharides. 6th European Congress on Biotechnology, Firenze, Italy, June 13-17, 1993

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