Little information exists on recovering polyunsaturated fatty acids fr
om microalgae; however, methods for concentration and purification of
PUFAs from fish oil have been extensively reported. This review examin
es recovery and purification of microalgae derived PUFAs, but techniqu
es developed for use with fish oil are also reviewed as being potentia
lly useful for concentration and purification from microalgae. The two
main techniques for concentrating and purifying-urea fractionation an
d high performance liquid chromatography-are discussed in depth and at
tention is focused on the process developed by the authors for obtaini
ng highly pure PUFA. Other potentially useful techniques, such as supe
rcritical fluid extraction and lipase-catalyzed processing are detaile
d. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.