Sustainable bioeconomy for seaweed in the food and pharmaceutical industry applications: an overview

Seaweed is significant in the marine ecosystem due to its photosynthetic process, where they capture energy to maintain the land. The negative aspects are environmental damage, including the death of fauna and biochemical changes in the water due to its decomposition. Therefore, one of the sustainable solutions is the valorization of biomass, which would improve the economy and at the same time mitigate environmental problems since it would produce a transformation towards new products for commercial purposes. Scientific literature reports important seaweed properties for the food, biomedical and cosmetic industries due to the presence of gelling, thickening, stabilizing, and functional components. Besides, seaweed contains polysaccharides, proteins, fatty acids, pigments, amino acids, phenolic compounds, among others). The transformation of biomass can be achieved through green and sustainable processes (biotechnological processes), the solid-state fermentation, and enzymatic hydrolysis. This review analyzes and discusses basic and applied information, such as the case of bioreactors used in solid-state fermentation, including the classification of seaweed, the importance of seaweed in the ecosystem, current environmental problems, obtaining bioproducts through biotechnological processes (polysaccharides, peptides, and proteins), applications in industry and future prospects in terms of the bioeconomy.