STM Article Repository

Microalgae have been reported to produce endogenous phytohormones including auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, brassinosteroids and abscisic acid. There is a vast increasing demand for microalgal-derived biomolecules in crop production (biostimulants and biofertilisers), food and feed, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and biofuel production. Biorefinery is a comprehensive approach that could fractionize all biocompositions of microalgal biomass for these specific uses. Methanol residual released from microalgal lipid extraction usually contains variety of bioactive compounds including the phytohormones have been reported to enhance crop seed germination and plant growth (root length, plant height, branch, leave and flower increase). Although some good results have been achieved on application of microalgal products as fertilizers, biostimulants, and regulators of plant growth, these studies poorly provided analytical techniques for characterization of these algal products. The profile and content of algal products-constituted biomolecules which play the main roles in catalyzing crop seed germination as well as plant growth should be elucidated for providing basic understanding and guiding for specific applications in agriculture. This book chapter is aimed at representing production of various phytohormones production in microalgae, cyanobacteria, as well as algae world. Moreover, this study also provides state of the art of recent advanced techniques in qualitatively and quantitatively determination of phytohormones in microalgae. Moreover, general perspective of algal phytohormones applications in the regard of microalgae-based biorefinery is also overviewed.