Castillo Zamora, Aly JesúsPereira, SimónOtero Casal, Ana MaríaGarcía Jares, Carmen MaríaLores Aguín, Marta2022-09-022022-09-022022Journal of Applied Phycology 34, 1537–1553 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-022-02712-30921-8971http://hdl.handle.net/10347/29197info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016/EQC2018-005011-P/ESThis study provides an efficient alternative by extracting bioactive compounds from Haematococcus pluvialis via matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) from its wet form, reducing one of the process steps with the greatest economic impact, the drying of the microalga. To obtain a suitable extract for nutraceutical purposes, solvents with the generally recognised as safe (GRAS) designation (ethanol, ethyl lactate, and ethyl acetate) with limitations of use (acetone) and extractants with higher toxicity such as methanol and methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE) are contrasted. Through the optimisation of the extractive process, ethanol, a GRAS solvent, presents the best overall recovery for carotenoid compounds and fatty acids, showing an antioxidant activity of 1.58 mmolTE g−1 DW, comparable to its synthetic alternative of petrochemical origin without the drawback of having limitations in its food use. In addition, the identification of the phenolic compounds, phloroglucinol, p-coumaric acid, gallic acid, and catechin, not previously characterised in red stage H. pluvialis, provides a response to the phenolic activity present in the extract (24.65 mmolGAE g−1 DW). Comparison of the extractive efficiency obtained with the main methods for the extraction of carotenoids and fatty acids in H. pluvialis, in contrast to the proposed method, shows a positive feasibility of this approacheng© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/MicroalgaeGRAS solventsCarotenoidsPolyphenolsAntioxidantsMatrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD)journal article10.1007/s10811-022-02712-31573-5176open access