In this study we tried to confirm the effect of an astaxanthin-rich Haematococcus pluvialis extract on cognitive function in 96 subjects by a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled study. Healthy middle-aged and elderly subjects who complained of age-related forgetfulness were recruited. Ninety-six subjects were selected from the initial screen, and ingested a capsule containing astaxanthin...

The PII signaling protein is a key protein for controlling nitrogen assimilatory reactions in most organisms, but little information is reported on PII proteins of green microalga Haematococcus pluvialis. Since H. pluvialis cells can produce a large amount of astaxanthin upon nitrogen starvation, its PII protein may represent an important factor on elevated production of Haematococcus astaxanth...

Astaxanthin is a novel carotenoid nutraceutical occurring in many crustaceans and red yeasts. It has exhibited various biological activities including prevention or amelioration of cardiovascular disease, gastric ulcer, hypertension, and diabetic nephropathy. In this study, ultrasound-assisted extraction was developed for the effective extraction of astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis. Som...

Haematococcus pluvialis is an organism that under certain conditions can produce astaxanthin, an economically important carotenoid. In this study, the transcriptional expression patterns of eight carotenogenic genes of H. pluvialis in response to jasmonic acid (JA) were evaluated using real-time PCR. Astaxanthin accumulation action and photosynthesis flourescence were monitored at the same time...

The operation of cell disruption is indispensable but cost much in microalgae industry. To be simplified, two different reaction mechanisms await in the cell to respond to moderated or stressed environment. The physical and chemical changes of enzyme and turgor pressure of cell in this conversion play an important role in the enhancement of biomass and metabolites. Repeated turgor pressure (bas...

Haematococcus pluvialis (Flotow) is a unicellular green alga, which is considered to be the best astaxanthin-producing organism. Molecular markers are suitable tools for the purpose of finding out genetic variations in organisms; however there have been no studies conducted on ISSR or RAPD molecular markers for this organism. The DNA of 10 different strains of H. pluvialis (four strains from Ir...

Under high light (HL) stress, astaxanthin-accumulating Haematococcus pluvialis and β-carotene-accumulating Dunaliella salina showed different responsive patterns. To elucidate cellular-regulating strategies photosynthetically and metabolically, thylakoid membrane proteins in H. pluvialis and D. salina were extracted and relatively quantified after 0 h, 24 h and 48 h of HL stress. Proteomic anal...

An internally radiating photobioreactor was applied for the production of astaxanthin using the unicellular green alga Haematococcus pluvialis. The cellular morphology of H. pluvialis was significantly affected by the intensity of irradiance of the photobioreactor. Small green cells were widespread under lower light intensity, whereas big reddish cells were predominant under high light intensit...

Two human clinical studies were performed. One was an open-label non-controlled study involving 30 healthy female subjects for 8 weeks. Significant improvements were observed by combining 6 mg per day oral supplementation and 2 ml (78.9 μM solution) per day topical application of astaxanthin. Astaxanthin derived from the microalgae, Haematococcus pluvialis showed improvements in skin wrinkle (c...