Microalgae and Macroalgae and Their Bioactive Molecules for Human Health
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 288
Editors
Interests: employment of microalgae for drug discovery and drug delivery systems, as food or feed supplements, for bioremediation purposes; novel culture strategies and technologies to increase the yields of marine primary and secondary metabolites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: diatoms; microalgae; molecular biology and biochemistry; bioinformatics; pharmacological and nutraceutical activity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Molecules journal is currently running a Special Issue titled "Microalgae and Macroalgae and Their Bioactive Molecules for Human Health".
Microalgae and macroalgae are rich sources of bioactive compounds such as carotenoids (e.g., astaxanthin, fucoxanthin), phycocyanin, polyphenols, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and phytosterols, which are associated with important health benefits, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antihypertensive, and cardioprotective effects.
Several microalgal genera produce powerful antioxidants that counteract oxidative stress, reduce lipid peroxidation, and support brain, eye, and metabolic health by improving glucose and lipid homeostasis, thereby helping to prevent chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. The production of specific high value-added compounds can also be increased by carefully optimizing physical and nutritional growth conditions.
Macroalgae provide fucoxanthin and polysaccharides with anti-obesity, antimicrobial, and neuroprotective activities, while their polyphenols exhibit cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory properties.
Overall, these bioactive compounds make algae promising and sustainable ingredients for functional foods, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements, although challenges such as biomass variability and the limited number of long-term human clinical trials still need to be addressed.
This Special Issue aims to:
- Contribute to expanding knowledge on the potential of algae as a source of products with biological activity;
- Deepen the understanding of species already known as producers of bioactive compounds and extend this knowledge to less-studied species;
- Identify the main constraints that currently limit the commercialization of such products and propose strategies to increase their yields, with a view to their future large-scale production.
As Guest Editors, we are pleased to invite you to contribute a paper to this Special Issue. We believe that your contribution will be essential for the eventual success of it.
Dr. Angela Sardo
Dr. Ida Orefice
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- microalgae
- macroalgae
- high-value compounds
- bioactivity
- nutraceuticals
- cosmeceuticals
- pharmaceuticals
- human health
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