ABSTRACT
Spirulina is a blue-green filamentous spiral-shaped marine alga, widely found in ocean and sea waters. Botanists classify it as microalga belonging to Cyanophyceae; but according to bacteriologists it is a bacterium due to its prokaryotic structure. The two most important species of Spirulina are alga S. maxima and S. platensis. Because of its high nutrition content characterized by more than 70% amino acid content, together with essential minerals, vitamins, a whole spectrum of natural mixed carotene, fatty acids S. platensis is gaining more attention. Spirulina is an inexpensive attractive alternative food source for poor countries very often devastated by natural calamities. It is a traditional food for some Mexican and African people (https://www.javeriana.edu.co/ universitas_scientiarum/vol8n1/bernal.htm) Spirulina has another unique application. It is a very efficient biosorbent, Spirulina sp., was found to contain detectable levels of mercury and lead (Slotton et al. 1989) when grown under the contaminated condition, implying that it can take up toxic metals from the environment. Spirulina can thus be cultivated in wastewater to improve water quality.
