Recent advancements in astaxanthin production from microalgae: A review

Microalgae have emerged as the best source of high-value astaxanthin producers. Algal astaxanthin possesses numerous bioactivities hence the rising demand for several health applications and is broadly used in pharmaceuticals, aquaculture, health foods, cosmetics, etc. Among several low-priced synthetic astaxanthin, natural astaxanthin is still irreplaceable for human consumption and food-additive uses. This review highlights the recent development in production enhancement and cost-effective extraction techniques that may apply to large-scale astaxanthin biorefinery. Primarily, the biosynthetic pathway of astaxanthin is elaborated with the key enzymes involved in the metabolic process. Moreover, discussed the latest astaxanthin enhancement strategies mainly including chemicals as product inducers and byproducts inhibitors. Later, various physical, chemical, and biological cell disruption methods are compared for cell disruption efficiency, and astaxanthin extractability. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive review of advancements in astaxanthin research covering scalable upstream and downstream astaxanthin bioproduction aspects.