The Health Benefits of Chlorella and Spirulina

Chlorella is a genus of unicellular green algae, which belongs to the phylum of the green algae. Chlorella is a freshwater algae. It has a round shape with a diameter of 2 to 10 micrometers. It grows in large quantities especially in Southeast Asia and gives rivers and lakes there a green color.

Chlorella algae

Chlorella is an attractive food source because it contains a high amount of protein. Other essential nutrients such as dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals can also be found in the algae.

Dried Chlorella contains about 55 to 67% protein, 1 to 4% chlorophyll, 9 to 18% dietary fiber and a fair amount of minerals and vitamins.

Chlorella also contains many trace elements and omega-3 fatty acids. For this reason, it is widely used as a dietary supplement. This dietary supplement is especially popular in Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Today, this trend is also moving towards Europe and the United States.

Several therapeutic effects of Chlorella have been found. Not only in animal studies, but also in human research, many effects emerged.

For example, Chlorella-containing food supplements are widely used on the assumption that they have an immune-enhancing effect. In scientific research, Chlorella has indeed been shown to have immune-stimulating effects.

Also, Chlorella increases the concentration of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) in breast milk. SIgA plays a critical role in the mucosal immune system and is the human body’s first defense against pathogenic microbial invasion (2). Reducing the amount of sIgA is associated with an increased risk of infections.

And finally, Chlorella has a role in detoxification of heavy metals (especially cadmium) and dioxin.

Spirulina

Spirulina are blue-green algae due to the pigments in the cell wall which are chlorophyll and phycocyanin.

The advantages

Both types of algae have many advantages, especially in terms of nutritional value.

Both algae are extremely high in proteins that are easier to digest than animal proteins. Spirulina and chlorella are rich in vitamins C, E and all B vitamins, including B12 which is rarely found in plants. Both algae contain high levels of macro minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc and potassium. They also provide an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids such as GLA, mucopolysaccharides, beta-carotene and nucleic acids (RNA and DNA). They are so complete in nutrients that it is also believed that humans can live on these algae alone for a longer period of time.

Lgem

Algae can do a lot for our health. They have high levels of vitamins, minerals, proteins and other important substances for our body.

Because of this emerging trend, growing algae is more important than ever.

Growing algae can be done better, in an easy and affordable way. Lgem designs and produces reliable and innovative systems for growing algae and we control all the biochemical processes involved. It is important to us that our systems are low labour-intensive, energy efficient and scalable.