Microalgae can produce various natural products such as pigments, enzymes, unique
fatty acids and vitamin that benefit humans. The objective of the study is to study the
bioaccessibility of carotenoids (β-carotene and lycopene) and vitamin E (α- and β-
tocopherol) of Nannochloropsis oculata and Chaetoceros calcitrans. Analyses were carried
out for both the powdered forms of N. oculata and C. calcitrans, and the dried extract
forms of N. oculata and C. calcitrans. In vitro digestion method together with RP-HPLC
was used to determine the bioaccessibility of carotenoids and vitamin E for both forms
of microalgae. Powdered form of N. oculata had the highest bioaccessibility of β-carotene
(28.0 ± 0.6 g kg-1), followed by dried extract N. oculata (21.5 ± 1.1 g kg-1), dried extract C.
calcitrans (16.9 ± 0.1 g kg-1), and powdered C. calcitrans (15.6 ± 0.1 g kg-1). For lycopene,
dried extract of N. oculata had the highest bioaccessibility of lycopene (42.6 ± 1.1 g kg-
1), followed by dried extract C. calcitrans (41.9 ± 0.6 g kg-1), powdered C. calcitrans (39.7
± 0.1 g kg-1) and powdered N. oculata (32.6 ± 0.7 g kg-1). Dried extract C. calcitrans had the
highest bioaccessibility of α-tocopherol (72.1 ± 1.2 g kg-1). However, β-tocopherol was
not detected in both dried extract and powdered form of C. calcitrans. In conclusion, all
samples in their dried extract forms were found to have significantly higher
bioaccessibilities than their powdered forms. This may be due to the disruption of the
food matrix contributing to a higher bioaccessibility of nutrients shown by the dried
extract forms