METHOD FOR OBTAINING RIBITOL, XYLITOL AND OTHER POLYOLS THROUGH MICROALGAE CULTIVATION

Processed foods often contain large amounts of sugar to enhance their taste. Growing concern about obesity and diabetes, which are a public health priority, has driven the search for healthier alternatives to sugar in processed foods, such as non-nutritive sweeteners. Among the most widely used sweeteners in the food industry are artificially produced molecules such as saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame potassium and neotame. However, their high sweetening power can activate reward mechanisms that perpetuate our sweetness threshold and craving. On the other hand, sweeteners of natural origin, such as stevioside, erythritol and xylitol, offer advantages over industrial sweeteners, for example the antibacterial properties and caries-preventive effects of xylitol. Nevertheless, the industrial-scale production of some of these natural compounds requires complex and high-cost processes, such as the catalytic dehydrogenation of D-xylose or the use of expensive catalysts. Therefore, there is a need to identify new sources for the production of natural sweeteners at high concentrations that are sustainable and more cost-effective