• Benefits of one tablespoon a day.
• Bioneering visions.
• Beginning of village scale technology.
• The integrated health and energy system.
• Three experimental projects: India, Togo, Peru.
• Reducing eye disease in India.
• Family scale cultivation in India.
• Harvesting from lakes in Myanmar.
• Hope for the world's children.
  

The world's largest spirulina nutrition program with 5,000 children was finished in 1992. Children near Madras consumed one gram a day for 150 days. This small amount provided the daily requirement of beta carotene (Vitamin A) which helps prevent blindness and eye disease. A symptom of Vitamin A deficiency, Bitot's spot, a scarring of the conjunctiva of the eye, decreased from 80% to 10%.6

Spirulina was given to children in extruded noodles, sweetened with sugar to preserve beta carotene. Called "Spiru-Om," it was well accepted by the children. This project was sponsored by the Indian government and was lead by Dr. C.V. Seshadri of the Murugappa Chettiar Research Center in Madras. It is hoped this program can be extended to other districts in India.

One goal of the program was to provide an alternative to the current Vitamin A therapy, giving massive doses of imported pure Vitamin A every six months to children.

8.10. Dr. C.V. Seshadri, with Dr. Ripley Fox and R. Henrikson, 1993.

8-11. A spoonful of "Spiru-Om" noodles is given to a small child. (Courtesy of C.V. Seshadri)6

An even better solution is growing spirulina locally, and giving it to children. Another government sponsored project in Southern India, provides small backyard basins to women for family nutrition.7 This could develop into local village networks of ponds to combat Vitamin A and general immune deficiency conditions.

8.12. Home cultivation and harvesting in Tamil Nadu, India.
(Courtesy of C.V. Seshadri)6

The All India Coordinated Project on Algae began in 1976 to harness algae as biofertilizer and to cultivate it for human nutrition and animal feed at both commercial and rural levels. Original work began with scenedesmus, green algae, but later, spirulina was chosen because of its advantages.

In 1991, the Indian government launched large scale nutritional studies. To demonstrate national interest, the Ministry of Health issued official standards for food grade spirulina.

India may be the only country in the world conducting a joint effort by many government agencies covering all aspects of spirulina, from simple cultivation basins to large scale commercial farms. The government has sponsored large scale nutrition studies with animals and humans and has investigated therapeutic uses.8

Four volcanic lakes with natural spirulina blooms were studied beginning in 1984. Production began at Twin Taung Lake in 1988, and by 1999 increased to 100 tons per year. About 60% is harvested from boats on the surface of the lake, and about 40% is grown in outdoor ponds alongside the lake. During the blooming season in the summer, when spirulina forms thick mats on the lake, people in boats collect a dense concentration of spirulina in buckets.

Spirulina is harvested on parallel inclined filters, washed with fresh water, detwatered and pressed again. This paste is extruded into noodle like filaments which are dried in the sun on transparent plastic sheets. Dried chips are taken to a pharmaceutical factory in Yangon, pasteurized, and pressed into tablets.

Almost the entire production is distributed inside the country. Millions bottles of locally grown tablets have been sold in Myanmar. People report improvements in the intelligence of children, fertility of couples, faster wound healing, increased mental awareness, more energy for older people, acceleration of immune response, and even better meditation practices for monks and nuns.9

By adding growing ponds along the lakes and installing a more efficient harvest and drying system, Myanmar has the ability to become an even larger world producer

In the developed world, spirulina is an established health food with a growing reputation of making healthy people even healthier. It has been recognized as a "national food" by the two most populous countries, India and China, where cropland is in short supply. Both countries are becoming major world producers.

In India and Vietnam, it is recommended for nursing mothers. For newborns, malnutrition is often caused by a lack of mother's milk, the mother herself often being ill. Spirulina given to the mother helps a return to lactation and the babies rapidly gain weight.10

6.15-16. Baby saved from malnutrition by spirulina,
before and after
in Togo, West Africa.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 1990, doctors conducted nutrition trials in two orphanages. Food formulas containing 5% spirulina had a better effect than soya at much lower levels.11

In a bush hospital in Zaire in 1990, spirulina in corn flower cookies improved health of children with severe protein-energy malnutrition.12 In the Central African Republic in 1992, a clinic treated 200 children a day, improving the health of those with kwashiorkor and marasmus.13 In Rwanda in 1993, children with kwashiorkor were given algae at a dispensary. After 15 days, their mothers wanted to buy spirulina and learn how to grow it in their village.14