Seaweeds in Ireland: Main components, applications, and industrial prospects

Seaweeds or macroalgae are of extreme relevance in the scientific community as this biomass offers un-parallel opportunities in the discovery of new molecules and compounds including mainly carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, as well as other minor compounds, such as minerals,vitamins and pigments. Most of these compounds have promising potential and demonstrated health benefits in in vivo and/or in vitro models, including antioxidant, anti-tumor, and antibacterial activities. Thus, the interest of several industries in seaweeds has been renewed as not only a source of biomass for basic nutrients but as promising "multi-factories" able to produce huge amounts of compounds with food/feed, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical applications. This chapter summarizes the current studies exploring the composition of seaweeds, emphasizing the most promising applications and/or biological activities of their main compounds from a food industry perspective; as well as current challenges for their exploitation including the extraction of the compounds and the sustainability issues associated to this growing industry from both an Irish and global perspectives.