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Background and objective: A Spirulina platensis is one of the major sources of functional food ingredients with nutraceutical properties. It is a very perishable and should be processed immediately after harvesting. Therefore, the main purpose of the present study was investigation the effect of different processing condition on the most important qualitative features of Spirulina platensis. Material and methods: Fresh Spirulina platensis was processed (shade, sun, oven, microwave, vacuum oven, freeze and spray-drying and freezing with and without blanching) and changes in its qualitative characteristics (minerals and fatty acids composition, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity) of samples were analyzed. Results and conclusion: Processing conditions significantly (p≤0.05) affected the qualitative properties of the sample. The vacuum-oven dried sample had the highest level of total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity because of the lower possibility of oxygen dependent degradation and enzymatic browning reactions. The mineral was not significantly different (p>0.05) in dried samples, while Na, K, Mg, Mn, Ca and P content of the frozen samples were reduced significantly. Various unsaturated essential fatty acids like α-linolenic acid, γ-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid were detected in Spirulina. In this regards, spray and freeze-drying were the best processing methods in protecting UFA, and vacuum oven-drying was preferred in protecting total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of the Spirulina platensis. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Nouri et al. (2018) studied this question.