23 Nutraceutical and Pharmaceutical Applications …
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quantum yield, high Stokes shift, and an essential insensitivity to quenching), and
natural colorants (Sonani et al. 2016). The quality of PBPs also determines their
applications. For example, the phycocyanin with purity grade less than 0.7 is known
as food grade and used in the food industry, phycocyanin with purity grade of 3.9
is used as a reactive agent while the purity grade greater than 4.0 is applied as an
analytical grade (Kuddus et al. 2013). The purity grade is determined by calculating
the absorption ratio (absorption of phycocyanin at 620 nm to the absorption of total
proteins at 280 nm.
23.4 Phycobiliproteins for Nutraceutical
and Pharmaceutical Applications
The climate change conditions, unhealthy food, tobacco, and alcohol consumption
may be the leading cause of the increase of harmful free-radicals production in the
body. In turn, the overproduction of free radicals leads to oxidative stress, which
is one of the leading causes of pressing human body health challenges including
chronic diseases (Pandey et al. 2013). Those harsh conditions increase the new cases
of chronic diseases and the costs of related health care. Nutraceutical compounds are
considered as a natural and sustainable solution to achieve the prevention, control,
and treatment of various diseases with minimal or no side effects. Furthermore, the
approach of utilizing natural nutraceutical compounds as health-promoting products
is also expected to reduce the health care costs, and improve health quality and
lifestyle.
It is in the same line that PBPs are applied as potent nutraceutical and pharmaceutical compounds to support the body self-healing and to manufacture new pharmaceutical products with the potential to prevent and cure the new infections. Different
scientific studies reported a variety of biological and pharmacological activities (such
as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, hepatoprotective, free-radicals scavenger, among others) of PBPs that impeccably impel them, and sustainable healthpromoting agents (Romay et al. 2003; Stanic-Vucinic et al. 2018). The PBPs exhibit
the strong ability for scavenging the harmful free radicals (for example, peroxynitrile
due to interaction with apoprotein residues such as tryptophan and tyrosine), thus
leading to the promotion of body health and life maintenance including prevention of oxidative stress-induced diseases such as cancer. The scavenging ability
of PBPs, especially phycocyanin is linked to its prominent antioxidant property.
For example, Renugadevi et al. (2018) evaluated PC extracts for their antioxidant
property through various methods: phosphomolybdenum essay, ferric ions reducing
power essay, hydrogen peroxide free-radical scavenging activity, anti-lipid peroxidation activities; the results from those essays revealed that PC pigments possess
a prominent antioxidant property where the efficiency of hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity reached 95.27%. Apart from scavenging the harmful free radicals,
PBPs have other potent physiological and pharmacological activities. PBPs are used
581
quantum yield, high Stokes shift, and an essential insensitivity to quenching), and
natural colorants (Sonani et al. 2016). The quality of PBPs also determines their
applications. For example, the phycocyanin with purity grade less than 0.7 is known
as food grade and used in the food industry, phycocyanin with purity grade of 3.9
is used as a reactive agent while the purity grade greater than 4.0 is applied as an
analytical grade (Kuddus et al. 2013). The purity grade is determined by calculating
the absorption ratio (absorption of phycocyanin at 620 nm to the absorption of total
proteins at 280 nm.
23.4 Phycobiliproteins for Nutraceutical
and Pharmaceutical Applications
The climate change conditions, unhealthy food, tobacco, and alcohol consumption
may be the leading cause of the increase of harmful free-radicals production in the
body. In turn, the overproduction of free radicals leads to oxidative stress, which
is one of the leading causes of pressing human body health challenges including
chronic diseases (Pandey et al. 2013). Those harsh conditions increase the new cases
of chronic diseases and the costs of related health care. Nutraceutical compounds are
considered as a natural and sustainable solution to achieve the prevention, control,
and treatment of various diseases with minimal or no side effects. Furthermore, the
approach of utilizing natural nutraceutical compounds as health-promoting products
is also expected to reduce the health care costs, and improve health quality and
lifestyle.
It is in the same line that PBPs are applied as potent nutraceutical and pharmaceutical compounds to support the body self-healing and to manufacture new pharmaceutical products with the potential to prevent and cure the new infections. Different
scientific studies reported a variety of biological and pharmacological activities (such
as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, hepatoprotective, free-radicals scavenger, among others) of PBPs that impeccably impel them, and sustainable healthpromoting agents (Romay et al. 2003; Stanic-Vucinic et al. 2018). The PBPs exhibit
the strong ability for scavenging the harmful free radicals (for example, peroxynitrile
due to interaction with apoprotein residues such as tryptophan and tyrosine), thus
leading to the promotion of body health and life maintenance including prevention of oxidative stress-induced diseases such as cancer. The scavenging ability
of PBPs, especially phycocyanin is linked to its prominent antioxidant property.
For example, Renugadevi et al. (2018) evaluated PC extracts for their antioxidant
property through various methods: phosphomolybdenum essay, ferric ions reducing
power essay, hydrogen peroxide free-radical scavenging activity, anti-lipid peroxidation activities; the results from those essays revealed that PC pigments possess
a prominent antioxidant property where the efficiency of hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity reached 95.27%. Apart from scavenging the harmful free radicals,
PBPs have other potent physiological and pharmacological activities. PBPs are used