Nutricosmeceutical valorization of Porphyra/Pyropia spp. (Rhodophyta): biorefinery approach in the frame of Blue Economy

Nutricosmeceutical develops products to improve health through the use of bioactive compounds (BACs).

Algae are organisms that have a wide variety of BACs, high productivity and can be produced without irrigation or arable land.

Following EU Green Deal and Blue Economy, the proposal aims to increase the macroalgae Porphyra/Pyropia productivity in consortium with fish, to produce high value BACs naturally and make nutricosmeceutical more attractive to the market.

To reach this objective, the project will focus in: Porphyra production on a large scale using integrated multitrophic aquaculture with fishpond effluents from Chelon labrosus for alga growing, optimizing natural production of BACs; extract and purify BACs through biorefinery strategy; perform BACs encapsulation and test their sun protection, stability, toxicity, bioavailability; and develop topical and oral sunscreens.

Researches shows some abiotic factors for BACs development and production in Porphyra, however there is a lack of studies that correlate various abiotic factors along with fish culture for a circular economy and better algae development.

The project will produce biofertilizers and biostimulants from residual algal biomass, after extractions, which has not yet been optimized.

Natural sunscreens are still scarce on the market, due to the lack of standards in extracts with stability for use in products and low BACs availability.

The project’s interdisciplinarity is strong involving aquaculture, biochemistry, biotechnology and nutricosmeceutical.

This 24-month long proposal includes both the transfer of knowledge to the host institution and the researcher’s training in new techniques.

Furthermore, this project will place the researcher and the host institution in a leading role on natural production of Porphyra and BACs with emphasis in nutricosmetical industry.

It will make the researcher more employable and competitive in applying for future roles, continuing in academic and/or industrial area