Production, extraction and characterization of microalgal and cyanobacterial exopolysaccharides

The current interest of scientific but also industrial communities for the exploitation of microalgae is correlated with the development of specific culture and downstream processes. These processes are currently in progress, and the increasing of knowledges led to emergence of high value compounds such as pigments, proteins, polysaccharides, unsaturated fatty acids, enzymes and others. Exopolysaccharides from microalgae have been at this time poorly explored despite their original structural features associated with specific biological and physico-chemical properties. This situation could be changed in a next future with the lowering of costs for microalgae exploitation and the increasing of literature giving the structural data and specific properties of these biopolymers. The aim of this review is to do the state of the art of processes for exopolysaccharide production and extraction from microalgal biomass and the analytical strategies for their characterization.