Algae establish a dissimilar group owning huge morphological and
metabolic variety. Algae are an exclusive source of beneficial constituents, holding
exciting biological activity. They consist of several groups, including unicellular,
colonial or filamentous, photosynthetic or heterotrophic micro-organisms containing
chlorophyll and other pigments. The photosynthetic pigment composition of algae
depends on the quantity and quality of light received by them. In addition to
chlorophyll, algal cells comprise a numeral of accessory pigments, such as
phycobiliproteins and carotenoids, that aid in photosynthesis and guard the cells against
photo blanching. Pigments are light-absorbing molecules in algae. The conventional
botanists categorize the algae based on their colour, more specifically based on the
distribution of the pigments, which has great taxonomic significance in algal
systematics. More than 40,000 algal species have been classified under prokaryotic
algae (cyanobacteria) and several eukaryotes, including green algae, diatoms, yellowgreen algae, golden algae, red algae, brown algae, dinoflagellates and others. These
intense metabolites from algae have numerous biotechnological and industrial
applications in cosmetic, food, diagnostic and pharmacological industries owing to
their nontoxic, noncarcinogenic environment and additional health-promoting
properties like antioxidative and immune-boosting effects. Cumulative trials of clinical
research on health aids of algal metabolites and pigments have made them a harmless
and viable replacement for chemically synthesized drugs. Additional perception into
the biological properties of these molecules and their method of action will aid in the
improvement of effective pharmaceutical products.
Keywords: Algae, Antioxidants, Metabolites, Pharmaceutical, Pigments.
