In the search of new functional food ingredients from algae

The well-known correlation between diet and health demonstrates the great possibilities of food to maintain or even improve our health. This fact has brought about a great interest for seeking new products that can contribute to improve our health and well-being. This type of foods able to promote our health has generically been defined as functional foods. Nowadays, one of the main areas of research in Food Science and Technology is the extraction and characterization of new natural ingredients with biological activity (e.g., antioxiclant, antiviral, antihypertensive, etc.) that can contribute to consumer's well-being as part of new functional foods. The present work shows the results of a bibliographic revision done on the chemical composition of different macroalgae together with a critical discussion about their potential as natural sources of new functional ingredients.