Microalgae-based polysaccharides: Insights on production, applications, analysis, and future challenges

Polysaccharides are essential macromolecules for living organisms, they are widely found in plants, animals, microorganisms, and algae. However, marine polysaccharides of microalgal origin have gained prominence over the last few years for their variety of applications in food, cosmetics, and especially health. The versatility of its applications is due to the derived complex chemical structures which come from its types of monosaccharide constituent, conformation, and the presence of substituent groups, especially the sulfate group. These facts contribute to the microalgae are promising for polysaccharides production. Some challenges related to extraction, identification, and purification have yet to be overcome, however, microalgae prove to be a potential source for the production of this class of compounds. In this sense, this review presents a comprehensive description of the production of microalgae polysaccharides, aspects related to chemical structure, rheological and functional characteristics, applications, and strategies for determination, in addition to a brief description of the main challenges for the use of these macromolecules. In summary, the results presented and discussed here can further elucidate the full potential of microalgae polysaccharides for different application purposes, in addition to providing guidance for the main hot spots to be considered in future research in this scientific field.