Chlorella Powder

Chlorella powder is the whole dried biomass of a unicellular freshwater green microalga, supplied as either Chlorella vulgaris Beijerinck or Auxenochlorella pyrenoidosa (long traded under its former name Chlorella pyrenoidosa). The species is fixed at order because the two differ in pigment and protein profile. Biomass is grown either photoautotrophically in open ponds or photobioreactors, or heterotrophically in fermenters on a glucose feed derived from cane or corn; Thovek declares the route on the certificate of analysis, since it drives colour, chlorophyll level and the organic certification a buyer can carry. The defining process variable is cell wall disruption. Chlorella has one of the most recalcitrant walls in the microalgae, a rigid cellulosic structure that locks the cell contents away from digestion, so the material is bead milled or pressure homogenised before drying and released at not less than 95% of cells ruptured, verified microscopically. Pulverised material, where the dried biomass is simply ground, is a different and cheaper article and should not be bought against this specification. Assay is set at not less than 55% protein on a dry basis, against published ranges of roughly 45-60% for the two commercial species, and not less than 1.5% total chlorophyll a plus b, against published values for C. vulgaris of roughly 1-4% of dry weight. In use the powder disperses into a dark green suspension rather than dissolving, and settles on standing; disruption improves both wetting and tablet disintegration, which is why chlorella tablets are one of the largest end formats alongside greens blends and stick packs. Origin and allergen position: this is a freshwater green alga, not a marine, fish, mollusc or crustacean product, and it is vegan, vegetarian and free from milk, egg, soy, gluten, nuts, peanut and sesame. Chlorella differs from spirulina on one commercially relevant point worth handling correctly on label: published analyses find biologically active cobalamin in Chlorella at up to about 2.1 µg/g rather than the pseudovitamin B12 that predominates in spirulina, but any B12 declaration should still be made against a batch assay rather than a nominal figure.