Epidemiological studies are providing strong evidence on beneficial health effects from dietary measures, leading scientists to actively investigate which foods and which specific agents in the diet can prevent diseases. Public health officers and medical experts should collaborate toward the design of disease prevention diets for nutritional intervention. Functional foods are emerging as an instrument for dietary intervention in disease prevention. Functional food products are technologically developed ingredients with specific health benefits. Among promising sources of functional foods and chemopreventive diets of interest, microalgae are gaining worldwide attention, based on their richness in high-value products, including carotenoids, proteins, vitamins, essential amino acids, omega-rich oils and, in general, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds. Beneficial effects of microalgae on human health and/or wellness could in the future be useful in preventing or delaying the onset of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. During the past decades, microalgal biomass was predominately used in the health food market, with more than 75% of the annual microalgal biomass production being employed for the manufacture of powders, tablets, capsules or pastilles. In this review, we report and discuss the present and future role of microalgae as marine sources of functional foods/beverages for human wellbeing, focusing on perspectives in chemoprevention. We dissected this topic by analyzing the different classes of microalgal compounds with health outputs (based on their potential chemoprevention activities), the biodiversity of microalgal species and how to improve their cultivation, exploring the perspective of sustainable food from the sea.
Functional foods and human health: research opportunities and challenges
