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Review
. 2022 Oct 28;20(11):677.
doi: 10.3390/md20110677.

A Critical Comparison of the Advanced Extraction Techniques Applied to Obtain Health-Promoting Compounds from Seaweeds

Eva Quitério  1 , Clara Grosso  2 , Ricardo Ferraz  1   3 , Cristina Delerue-Matos  2 , Cristina Soares  2
Affiliations
Review

A Critical Comparison of the Advanced Extraction Techniques Applied to Obtain Health-Promoting Compounds from Seaweeds

Eva Quitério et al. Mar Drugs. .

Abstract

Marine macroalgae are rich in bioactive compounds that can be applied in several fields, mainly food, cosmetics, and medicine. The health-promoting effects of bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, polysaccharides, carotenoids, proteins, and fatty acids, have been increasingly explored, especially regarding their antioxidant activity and improvement in human health. To extract these valuable compounds, advanced technologies that include Supercritical-Fluid Extraction (SFE), Pressurised-Liquid Extraction (PLE), Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAE), Microwave-Assisted Extraction (MAE), Enzyme-Assisted Extraction (EAE), Ultrasound-Microwave-Assisted Extraction (UMAE) and Liquefied Gas Extraction (LGE) have been assessed due to their notable advantages over the conventional methods (Solid-Liquid and Soxhlet extraction). These advanced techniques are considerably influenced by different extraction parameters such as temperature, pressure, type of solvent, extraction time, solvent:solid material ratio, power (MAE, UAE, and UMAE), enzymes used (EAE), and factors related to the macroalgae matrix itself. Optimizing these process parameters for each method is critical to obtain better efficiency results for the targeted bioactive compounds. Macroalgae are natural sources with undeniable beneficial effects on human health. In this context, optimising the extraction techniques discussed in this review should prioritise exploiting these valuable resources' wide range of bioactive properties.

Keywords: bioactive compounds; conventional extraction; enzyme-assisted extraction; microwave-assisted extraction; pressurised-liquid extraction; supercritical-fluid extraction; ultrasound-assisted extraction; ultrasound-microwave-assisted extraction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram representing the original papers included in Section 3.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic representation of the extraction techniques discussed in the review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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