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The effects of microalgae harvesting methods on microalgal biomass quality were evaluated using three species namely the freshwater green alga Chlorella vulgaris, marine red alga Porphyridium purpureum and marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Harvesting efficiencies of polyacrylamide addition, alkaline addition, and centrifugation ranged from 85 to 95, 59-92 and 100%, respectively, across these species. Morphology of the harvested cells (i.e. compromised cell walls) was significantly impacted by alkaline pH-induced flocculation for all three species. Over 50% of C. vulgaris cells were compromised with alkaline pH compared to

The field of research that explores the use of microalgae in biomedicine and health is complex and diverse. Numerous research avenues currently explore the use of microalgae in biomedicine and heath such as: focusing on establishing and boosting nutritional profiles for food applications; identification, characterisation and utilisation of microalgal metabolites with biological activity as functional ingredients and/or drugs; utilisation of recombinant technology to genetically modify the algae for use as production systems for enzymes, antibodies, growth factors, drugs, and vaccines; or the use of microalgae as a source of “biomaterial” for use in applications such as drug carriers or cellular scaffolds for tissue engineering. To illustrate the diversity of microalgae and its potential for utilisation in a wide variety of biomedical and heath care applications, this chapter will present a concise overview of this broad applicability of microalgae in biomedicine and health, while highlighting research that is also occurring into the production and biorefinery of these compounds to facilitate a viable transition from laboratory to commercial production. Thus, this chapter aims to bridge the knowledge gap between both existing and potentially new algae applications, in particular, the use of microalgae as a source of “biomaterials” for biomedicine and health applications.

Marine macrophytes including seaweeds and sea grasses are the ecosystem engineers and experience constant threats from a wide range of anthropogenic stressors and climate fluctuations in their ecological niche. Marine macrophytes acclimate and/or tolerate these external perturbations by reprogramming their metabolite networks. Among the various metabolites that contribute to alleviate the stress, polyamines (PAs) are the nitrogenous metabolites that play a key role in plant growth, development, and biotic/abiotic stress protection in land plants. Their mode of action, signaling, and cross talk with diverse metabolic networks have been well studied in land plants; however, their functionality in marine macrophytes has merely scratched the window. In this brief chapter we attempt to summarize PA research in marine macrophytes in response to abiotic stress conditions. We emphasize to undertake futuristic efforts to explore PA involvement in stress response and to identify novel stress tolerance mechanism in marine macrophytes.