RESEARCH ARTICLE Effect of Temperature on Nutritional Values of Spirulina: Useful for Nutrient Sustainable Food Preparations to Combat Malnutrition Laxmi Parwani 1 • Jaspreet Singh 2 Received: 16 April 2018 / Revised: 30 June 2018 / Accepted: 15 September 2018 Ó The National Academy of Sciences, India 2018 Abstract Malnutrition is a major global public health problem which needs immediate attention. Spirulina genus can serve as a good alternative in many applications related to nutritious and therapeutic food, but unpleasant smell and taste of dried Spirulina powder limit its acceptability among mass. Processing or supplementation of Spirulina for different food type preparations can enhance the palatability of material, but usually, such preparations require heat exposure which affects nutritional values of material. Thus, the present study is aimed to evaluate the effect of temperature along with time on nutritional values of Spirulina for preparation of nutrient sustainable food types from the material. For this purpose, the dried powder of Spirulina platensis was treated at 100, 150 and 200 °C temperatures for different time intervals, viz. 5, 10, 15 and 30 min. Further assessment of temperature effects on nutritional values of material showed that with respect to temperature and time, chlorophyll, carotenoid, carbohy- drate and protein contents along with radical scavenging activities of powder were gradually decreased. However, an initial increase in total phenolic and flavonoid content was observed, but further at higher temperature and longer duration treatment points, the content was decreased. Findings revealed that the least detrimental effects in studied nutritional values of Spirulina powder were found at 100 °C for 10 and 15 min; further, these optimized values can be used for nutrient sustainable food preparations. Keywords Spirulina Á Temperature sensitivity Á Nutritional values Á Malnutrition Á Therapeutic food Introduction Malnutrition and poor diets constitute the number one driver of the global burden of diseases. Malnutrition among the children is the biggest threat as it solely contributes 56% of total child deaths due to greater susceptibility to infections and slow recovery from illness [1]. The wide- spread and alarming increase in the rates of child malnu- trition calls upon its immediate attention, as it directly affects intellectual and economic development of the country. Researchers are trying to explore new cost-ef- fective, complete food forms or sources for this purpose. Spirulina, blue-green algae, has been extensively studied for its nutritional and therapeutic values as the best way to fight durably and effectively against malnutrition [2]. It is a choice of interest due to its extraordinary nutritional values comprising 15 active ingredients. As nature’s richest and most complete source of nutrition, it is widely explored for various therapeutic benefits. Its easy local production by affordable technologies and cost-effectiveness are other important points of consideration. Spirulina is generally considered as safe for human consumption supported by many scientific interventions on animals and humans [2]. Hence, Spirulina is of great interest as it offers the possi- bility of being used as a functional food, but its poor Significance Statement To improve the palatability of Spirulina, processing or supplementation is required, which can affect its nutritional values. Thus, optimization of temperature and time was found useful for preparing nutrient sustainable Spirulina food. & Laxmi Parwani laxmi_parwani@rediffmail.com 1 Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali, Rajasthan 304022, India 2 School of Life Sciences, Jaipur National University, SIILAS Campus, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302017, India 123 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-018-1033-6