Benefits of Astaxanthin

                                                                       Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is a naturally occurring high-value  ketocarotenoid pigment with excellent antioxidant effects belonging to the  xanthophyll group of carotenoids, or the oxygenated carotenoids.  The hydroxyl and keto functional groups  present in the ending ionone ring of astaxanthin  is responsible for its uniquely powerful  antioxidant activity. They differs from other antioxidants in its ability to  penetrate the blood brain and retina barriers. Therefore, it is believed to  protect the brain and nervous system from neurodegenerative diseases (e.g.  cerebral thrombosis and stroke) and aging. 

Natural astaxanthin production  and commercialization is estimated to be a 1.2 billion dollar annual market.  Today, essentially all commercial astaxanthin for aquaculture is produced  synthetically from petrochemical sources, with an annual turnover of over $200  million, and a selling price of around $2000 per kilogram of pure astaxanthin.  Natural astaxanthin is sold for over $7000 per kg.

Source of Astaxanthin
Astaxanthin is present in many types of seafood, including  salmon, trout, red sea bream, shrimp and lobster, as well as in birds such as  flamingo and quail. As of today, astaxanthin is commercially produced from the  microalga Hematococcus pluvialis.
Benefits of Astaxanthin

• Astaxanthin acts as a chain-breaking  anti-oxidant, and therefore protect lipid-rich cell membranes from degradative  oxidation.
• Natural astaxanthin is a dietary supplement  with extremely powerful antioxidant benefits for human applications.
• Astaxanthin traps more free radicals than any  other antioxidant. 
• Astaxanthin has been proven to cross the human  blood-brain barrier, and therefore has the ability to directly act as a superb  antioxidant in the brain and the eyes.
• Astaxanthin enhances the action of other  antioxidants like Vitamin E and C.
• Astaxanthin protects nucleic acid components  of DNA, avoiding mutations to genetic material due to oxidative stress and  protects muscle cells from damaging effects of active oxygen produced upon  swimming upstream.
• Astaxanthin has been documented to  prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and enhance immune functions.

Applications of Astaxanthin

• Astaxanthin finds application in  the nutraceutical Industry, pharmaceutical  Industry and food coloration application
• Astaxanthin is  used as an animal feed additive to impart  coloration to salmonids (salmon and trout), as well as to red sea bream and  Tai.
• Recent studies revealed the wrinkling  and moisturizing effect of astaxanthin which suggest its potential  cosmeceutical applications in protection against skin aging.

Algae Strains for Astaxanthin Production

The most commonly  used algae strain that is used for Astaxanthin production is Haemotococcus Pluvalis. H  pluvialis is believed to accumulate the highest levels of astaxanthin in  nature. Commercially grown H pluvialis can accumulate more than 40g  of astaxanthin per kilogram of dry biomass. Other strains that could be used  for astaxanthin production include: Chlorella vulgaris, Chlorella zofingiensis,  Coelastrella striolata var. multistriata

Haematocyst of Haemotococcus pluvialis with red pigment astaxanthin.

Astaxanthin

Commerical Production of Astaxathin
Natural astaxanthin is produced in a two-stage culture process and its concentration can reach 1.5% to 4% of the dry weight.



Market Scope
The demand for natural astaxanthin is now emerging in the multi-billion dollar nutraceutical market. Astaxanthin is principally consumed by the salmon feed industry. The annual worldwide aquaculture market of this pigment is estimated at US$ 200 million with an average price of US$ 2500/kg.
The global astaxanthin market is estimated at about $257 million, most of which is used in fish coloration (2009 data; estimates by BCC Research for astaxanthin market size are however lower). The human uses market is growing and estimated at about $27-$40 million. Most astaxanthin is derived from the algae, H pluvialis, which is commonly consumed by fish and crustaceans – like salmon and lobster – and is responsible for their pink coloration.

Market Sectors	Market Size   ( as of 2009) ( Million USD)	Potential Market(2020) ( Million USD)
Animal feed colouring agents	300	800
Antioxidant nutraceuticals	30	300
Pharmaceuticals	Emerging	500
Cosmetics	Emerging	30

Table: Market Sectors and Future Market Potential  of Astaxanthin

Prominent Players in the Astaxanthin Market

Company	Location
Alga Technologies	Israel
Cyanotech	Hawaii
CCRES	Croatia
Algaetech International	Malaysia
Parry Nutraceuticals	India
Mera Pharmaceuticals Inc.,	Hawaii
Fuji Chemicals	Japan, Sweden
Valensa International	Florida

University and Research Efforts
Arizona State University – Recently developed a harvesting system for Astaxanthin production from Hematococcus combining acidification and dissolved air flotation. This system is capable of harvesting more than 95% of the biomass without the need for a coagulant or flocculent, and extracting over 95% of the intracellular astaxanthin from Haematococcus biomass.	Ben-Gurion University of Negev Professor Sammy Boussiba of the Microalgal Biotechnology Laboratory in the Ben Gurion University of Negev has developed the biotechnology of producing astaxanthin-rich Haematococcus pluvialis biomass.

Challenges in Astaxanthin Production

• Although natural sources have long been exploited for astaxanthin production, it is still uncertain if natural astaxanthin can be produced at lower cost than that of synthetic astaxanthin or not.
• One of the major limitations with the H pluvialis production system is that the astaxanthin gets trapped behind thick cells walls, thus complicating the extraction process and the production yields.
• Production capacity of H pluvialis is constrained by its intrinsic slow growth, low cell yield, ease of contamination by bacteria and protozoa, and susceptibility to adverse weather conditions. These challenges are magnified as processes are scaled up, and therefore require advanced technology to control

H pluvialis cannot be efficiently cultivated in dark heterotrophic mode, which requires high levels of irradiance, making the process economically less reasonable.
Astaxanthin - Factoids

• One of the technical challenges to developing Haematococcus algae astaxanthin has been the tough cell wall of the spores, which must be ruptured to allow the cell contents to be effectively digested by animals.  Cyanotech Corporation in Hawaii uses a combination of closed photobioreactors and open culture ponds to successfully mass produce astaxanthin-rich Haematococcus biomass, and proprietary milling technology to crack the cell walls.
• Commercial production of astaxanthin is being carried out in USA, India, Japan and Israel
• Astaxanthin is a carotenoid. Astaxanthin has been shown in studies to have 100-500 times the antioxidant capacity of Vitamin E as well as 10 times beta-carotene’s antioxidant capacity. Astaxanthin is found in many places in nature, but it is usually in small quantities as in salmon or shrimp.  
• By far the most concentrated and natural source of astaxanthin is the Haematococcus pluvialis algae.  These green algae also provide other important carotenoids such as beta-carotene. It accumulate the highest levels of astaxanthin in nature; commercially more than 40g of astaxanthin per kilo of dry biomass.
• Research shows that due to astaxanthins potent antioxidant activity, it may be beneficial in cardiovascular, immune, inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Some sources have demonstrated its potential as an anti-cancer agent. Research supports the assumption that it protects body tissues from oxidative damage. It also crosses the blood-brain barrier, which makes it available to the eye, brain and central nervous system to alleviate oxidative stress that contributes to ocular, and neurodegenerative diseases such as glaucoma and Alzheimers.
• Astaxanthin, as other carotenoids, can act as a quencher of singlet oxygen and other free radicals by absorbing the excited energy of singlet oxygen onto the polyene electron-rich chain, resulting first in the excitation of the carotenoid to a triplet state, and then in the dissipation of the extra energy in the form of heat by relaxation back to the ground state. In this way, it prevents cellular components or tissues from being damaged. The carotenoid structure remains unchanged, and ready to act as a radical quencher.
• Astaxanthin has been shown to protect against free radicals and promote numerous health functions. Astaxanthin offers protection against a broad range of human diseases like neuro-degenerative disorders. The antioxidant of astaxanthin is stronger than ?-carotene and vitamin E by 40x and 1,000x respectively.

CCRES ALGAE PROJECT
part of 
Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

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The Effects of Astaxanthin Weight Control

 

 

Physical Endurance and Muscle Recovery

 

Work, Sport, Leisure – in fact all physical activity will generate reactive oxygen species (ROS); the more intense the activity the greater number of free radicals. ROS are shown to have damaging effects on muscle performance and recovery. Published and on-going research, focused on improving endurance and reducing recovery time, are showing dramatic benefits linked to the potent carotenoid - astaxanthin. These findings are bringing astaxanthin to the forefront as a dietary supplement for professional athletes and physically active people.

Important to physical activity are our mitochondrial cells, often referred to as the “power stations of the cell” , which provide as much as 95% of our body’s pure energy (primarily by the burning of muscle glycogen and fatty acids). Unfortunately, a portion of this energy produces highly reactive and damaging ROS. ROS damage cells by triggering peroxidation of the cell membrane components, and oxidation of DNA and proteins. Furthermore, ROS continue to affect muscles even after the strenuous exercise has ceased. ROS activate the inflammation response whereby monocytes migrate into the muscle tissue causing additional cell damage. Often we will notice the onset of muscle damage during recovery in the form of tiredness and soreness. In addition to improving muscle performance through devised exercise regime, the sports research community is looking at other methods, such as nutrition to fuel and protect the body under extreme physical conditions. In the past, Vitamins E and C helped make the use of antioxidants a popular tool against oxidative damage during intense physical activity. Today, informed by current research we can point to astaxanthin as the antioxidant of choice for sports performance. Astaxanthin demonstrated 3 important physical benefits in clinical trials and supporting studies. Astaxanthin increased endurance, reduced muscle damage and improved lipid metabolism.

Astaxanthin Boosts Endurance

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study on healthy men supplemented with 4 mg astaxanthin per day for up to 6 months at Karolinska Institute, Sweden, standardized exercise tests demonstrated that the average number of knee bends performed increased only in the astaxanthin treated group at 3 months, and by the 6 month significant improvements were observed (Figure 1) (Malmsten & Lignell, 2008).

Figure 1. Increase in strength/endurance (Malmsten & Lignell, 2008)

   

Astaxanthin improved strength/endurance at 3 and 6 months determined by the average number of knee bends per person.

Figure 2. Effect of astaxanthin on swimming time (Ikeuchi et al., 2006)  

Astaxanthin improves endurance in a dose-dependant manner.

In another study, Aoi et al., (2008) demonstrated that astaxanthin may modify muscle metabolism by its antioxidant property and result in improved muscle performance and weight loss benefits. After 4 weeks the mice running time to exhaustion had significantly improved by up to 20 % , (2002) of Juntendo University, Japan, demonstrated by using 1200 meter track athletes, that a daily dose of 6 mg per day for 4 weeks resulted in their bodies accumulating lower levels of lactic acid (Figure 3). Ikeuchi et al., (2006) also reported the same findings and furthermore, astaxanthin efficacy had a dose-dependent response (Figure 4).

Figure 3. Reduction of lactic acid build-up after astaxanthin supplementation in track subjects (Sawaki et al., 2002) 

Figure 4. Effect of astaxanthin on blood lactate during swimming for 15 minutes (Ikeuchi et al., 2006)  

Astaxanthin reduced build-up of lactic acid in a dose-dependant manner.

In a double blind controlled placebo study, healthy women (n= 32; age-23-60) who ingested 12 mg of astaxanthin for 6 weeks significantly reduced their body fat (4%) when conducting routine walking exercise, compared to a placebo group. In addition, while control group increased their lactic acid by 31% compared to the astaxanthin group - only 13%

The Mechanism

The mechanism behind muscle endurance is based on several findings. Generally, astaxanthin protected the skeletal muscle from the increased damage of oxidative stress generated by physical activity. Furthermore, astaxanthin increased the metabolism of lipids as the main source of energy production by protecting the carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) involved in fatty acid transport into mitochondria. Aoi et al., (2003) of Kyoto Prefecture University used mice models that may partially explain the efficacy of astaxanthin; they compared control, exercise placebo, and astaxanthin treated exercise groups after intense physical activity. 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal-modified-protein (4-HNE) stain analyses of the calf (gastrocnemius) muscles revealed significantly lower peroxidation damage (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Effect of astaxanthin on 4-HNE-modifed proteins in leg muscle before and after exercise (Aoi et al., 2003)

Other biochemical markers for oxidative damage and inflammation such as DNA, (2003) also explained that astaxanthin directly modulates inflammation caused by the release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators. In vivo and in vitro tests demonstrate that astaxanthin inhibits the I?B Kinase (IKK) dependant activation of the Nuclear Factor-kB (NF-?B) pathway, a key step in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators. Aoi et al., 2008 also demonstrated increased lipid metabolism compared to carbohydrate as the main source of energy during strenuous activity (Figure 6). Furthermore, analysis of the mitochondrial lipid transport enzyme known as carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) revealed increased fat localization (Figure 7) and reduction of oxidative damage in the presence of astaxanthin (Figure 8). CPT I is important because it regulates fatty acyl-CoA entry into the mitochondria in the oxidation of fatty acids in muscle. Exercise-induced ROS may partly limit utilization of fatty acid via diminishing CPT I activity.

Figure 6. Fat substrate utilization increased with astaxanthin (Aoi et al., 2008)

   

 Calculated from the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and oxygen consumption. Values are means ± SE obtained from 8 mice.

Figure 7. Increased amount of FAT/CD36 that coimmunoprecipitated with CPT I skeletal muscle after a single session of exercise at 30 m/min for 30 min (Aoi et al., 2008)  

Values are means ± SE obtained from 6 mice.

Figure 8. Astaxanthin reduced the amount of HEL-modified CPT1 in skeletal muscle after a single session of exercise at 30m/min for 30min (Aoi et al., 2008)  

Values are means ± SE obtained from 6 mice.

Outlook

 

Strenuous physical activity generates high levels of ROS which affect muscle performance and metabolism of lipids. New research shows that astaxanthin can modify muscle metabolism via its antioxidant effect, resulting in the improvement of muscle function during exercise. Therefore, astaxanthin is expected to be useful for physically active people as well as athletes.

References

1. Aoi W, Naito Y, Sakuma K, Kuchide M, Tokuda H, Maoka T, Toyokuni S, Oka S, Yasuhara M, Yoshikawa T. (2003). Astaxanthin limits exercise-induced skeletal and cardiac muscle damage in mice. Antioxid Redox Signal, 5(1):139-144.
2. Aoi W, Naito Y, Takanami Y, Ishii T, Kawai Y, Akagiri S, Kato Y, Osawa T, Yoshikawa T. (2008). Astaxanthin improves muscle lipid metabolism in exercise via inhibitory effect of oxidative CPT I modification. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Com., 366:892–897.
3. Fukamauchi, M. (2007). Food Functionality of astaxanthin-10: Synergistic effects of astaxanthin-10 intake and aerobic exercise. Food Style 21, 11(10). [In Japanese]
4. Ikeuchi M, Koyama T, Takahashi J, Yazawa K. (2006). Effects of astaxanthin supplementation on exercise-induced fatigue in mice. Bio. Pharm. Bull., 29(10):2106-2110.
5. Lee SJ, Bai SK, Lee KS, Namkoong S, Na HJ, Ha KS, Han JA, Yim SV, Chang K, Kwon YG, Lee SK, Kim YM. (2003). Astaxanthin Inhibits Nitric Oxide Production and Inflammatory Gene Expression by Suppressing I?B Kinase-dependent NF-?B Activation. Mol. Cells, 16(1):97-105.
6. Malmsten C, Lignell A. (2008). Dietary supplementation with astaxanthin rich algal meal improves muscle endurance – a double blind study on male students. Carotenoid Science 13:20-22.
7. Sawaki K, Yoshigi H, Aoki K, Koikawa N, Azumane A, Kaneko K, Yamaguchi M. (2002). Sports performance benefits from taking natural astaxanthin characterized by visual activity and muscle fatigue improvements in humans. J Clin.Therap. Med., 18(9):73- 88.

CCRES special thanks to 

 Mr. Mitsunori Nishida, 

 
President of Corporate Fuji Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES) 

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What Is A Cover Crop A General Idea About Cover Crops and Their Benefits

What is a Cover crop?

These are usually the plants that we seed in the garden soil before planting regular plants. They generally happen to be of low cost, nature friendly and easy to grow. The primary function of this is to improve ecosystem quality. Plant them in vacant places; they will work their way into the soil. They are the best possible way to utilize your garden space during off-season. Cover cropping is the backbone of a sustainable annual cropping system.

Why use cover crops?

The benefits are not only limited to larger garden, even small gardens can also benefit from this.

You can easily give your soil a new life just by using cover crops. A revitalized soil means better crop yields in the future. A garden with cover crops mean lesser fertilizer in the years to come.

Weed suppression and pest suppression. The crops cover the weeds and prevent their growth by blocking the precious sunlight.

Cover crops increase soil protection by enhancing water infiltration and reduce run off specially during monsoon.

Cover crops especially legumes increase the nitrogen content of the soil. It helps in increasing overall plant health and increased pest-resistance.

The plants which have tap roots help in soil compaction.

It is very unlikely that you would get all the benefits from a single wonder plant. The key is to mix different cover crops according to you main growing plant. This will meet multiple benefits.

Cover crop seeds:

Cover crop seeds can be of Legumes, Non-legume broad leaves and Grass. You can select the seeds as per you needs. Just remember, While buying seeds make sure they are not genetically modified or treated with any type of herbicide or pesticide.

Cover crop solutions:

Technically, “any plant” can be a cover crop if it has been planted between periods of the regular crop production. One of the easiest and most popular cover crop is grass. It can grow easily in a place where soil drainage is a problem. It is easier to grow than legumes or any other small seeded crops. The fibrous root system of the grass helps in improving soil structure. Apart from grass there are plenty of other plants like Oats, Clover, Groundnut, Soya beans, pumpkin, etc., Having said that you should always give your local plants a priority.

Cover crop categories:

Cover crops can be categorized in few categories. Here are some of them:

Winter cover crops: these are planted in late summer and they become functional in winter. Plants like clover, peas, rye, etc.,

Summer green manure cover crops: Legumes such as soybean, cowpeas Non-legumes like millet or buckwheat are examples of this type. The basic purpose of using these types of plants is to improve the soil condition.

Forage crops: These are short rotation crops. Plants like white clover, red clover, alfalfa,etc., are some of the examples of this category.

Catch crops: Plants such as Rye is an excellent example of this. The primary purpose of this type of cover crops is stop the leaching of nutrient from the soil.

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