Our previous post mentions Chlorella as one of the ingredients in Pure Greens. Several have asked, “What is Chlorella?” and that’s a good question to ask! It’s always a good idea to check into the ingredients of the food preparations we eat. We sometimes ignore those hard to pronounce ingredients at our peril. The good news is, although Chlorella may look hard to pronounce it really isn’t (Klor-Ella) and it really is a great source of good nutrition.
Genus Chlorella is a single-celled green-colored algae which belongs to the phylum Chlorophyta. It is spherical in shape and only about 2 to 10 μm in diameter — that’s small! Chlorella contains the green photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll-a and -b in its chloroplast. Through photosynthesis it multiplies rapidly requiring only carbon dioxide, water, sunlight, and a small amount of minerals to reproduce. That makes it great for the environment, too.
The name Chlorella comes from the Greek word chloros, which means green, and the Latin diminutive suffix ella, which means small.
The German biochemist and cell physiologist, Otto Heinrich Warburg, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on cell respiration in 1931. Warburg also studied photosynthesis in Chlorella.
Melvin Calvin, at the University of California, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961 for the research he conducted on the pathways of carbon dioxide assimilation in plants using Chlorella.
In recent years, researchers have made less use of Chlorella as an experimental organism because it lacks a sexual cycle and, therefore, the research advantages of genetics are unavailable. Instead, interest and research as a food source has increased.
Many people believed Chlorella could serve as a successful source of food and energy because its photosynthetic efficiency can, in theory, reach 8% which is comparable with other highly efficient crops such as sugar cane, corn, and sugar beats. Chlorella is also an attractive food source because it is high in protein and other essential nutrients.
When dried, Chlorella it is about 45% protein, 20% fat, 20% carbohydrate, 5% fiber, and 10% minerals and vitamins. However, because it is a single-celled alga, harvest posed practical difficulties for its large-scale use as a food source until suitable mass-production methods were developed which are now being used to cultivate Chlorella in large artificial circular ponds.
This tiny algae, highly nutritious and health-supporting in a very big way, is one of several important ingredients in the exclusive Pure Greens blend.
Your friend in health,
Adam aka Guru