Spirulina is a tiny single-celled blue-green alga that lives in fresh water. It's a plant that has existed on earth for over 3 billion years, is about half a millimetre in length, and appears under a microscope as long, thin, blue-green spiral threads. Strong sunlight, pure water and clean air enable spirulina to thrive, but it is highly adaptable, and is known to survive in extremely harsh conditions.

Spirulina is said to have been consumed in Mexico City as the primary source of protein for 5,000 years. Today, millions of people worldwide use spirulina daily, but it is most commonly consumed in the far east; Japan is the world's largest consumer.

Spirulina is considered highly nutritious, and NASA has used spirulina for astronauts in space. In the 1974 United Nations World Food Conference, it was announced that spirulina is “the most ideal food for mankind”. The World Health Organisation considers it "a very suitable food” and “able to be administered to children without any risk”, while The United Nations has said “there is a need for both national governments and inter-governmental organizations to re-evaluate the potential of spirulina to fulfil both their own food security needs as well as a tool for their overseas development emergency response efforts”.

Spirulina helps to enhance tonus and vitality, helps in case of fatigue, helps to support the body's vitality, helps to make you feel more energetic, and enhances vitality/energy. Spirulina is a rich source of antioxidants that help the body to protect against the consequences of oxidative stress, assisting the body to protect against oxidation.

PlantPills spirulina is between 60 and 70% protein, and this protein is in a pre-digested form, meaning that it is extraordinarily easy to digest, resulting in an unmatched digestibility coefficient of 95%. Unlike most foods, spirulina's cell walls are a very thin complex of natural sugars which practically dissolve upon contact with moisture and digestive enzymes.

Within moments, it is absorbed by the body, without the loss of time and energy incurred in the digestion of ordinary foods.

Spirulina has extremely high levels of EAAs (essential amino acids) that we must obtain from food, and BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids), and because the amino acids in spirulina are delivered in an essentially “free-form” state, there is almost instantaneous assimilation, allowing rapid protein synthesis.

BCAAs are often used to improve exercise performance and recovery, and to reduce muscle breakdown. It is no surprise that these are some of the benefits observed in studies involving athletes.

PlantPills spirulina has a particularly high omega 6 essential fatty acid GLA content, in amounts comparable to purpose built supplements that use extracts and isolates, and yet spirulina is a vegetarian whole food.

PlantPills spirulina is grown in vast mineral rich fresh water “raceway” type ponds by Parry Nutraceuticals in India, the only spirulina producer in the world to be certified by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) under their Dietary Ingredient Verification Program. Parry have been cultivating spirulina for over 30 years, and are acknowledged to be among the very best producers of spirulina in the world.

PlantPills spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) contains gamma linolenic acid (GLA), vitamin K, vitamin B2, chlorophyll and crude phycocyanin.

A concern for anyone who consumes spirulina is the potential contamination of spirulina with blue green algae strains of AFA (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae), some of which produce microcystins, which are known to be hepatoxic (toxic to the liver) and carcinogenic (cancer causing).

PlantPills spirulina tests negative for microcystins, at a stringent detection limit of half a part per billion. It also tests negative for the neurotoxin BMAA. Frankly, if every batch of spirulina is not tested to this level, it cannot be deemed certain to be safe for human consumption.

PlantPills spirulina is cultivated using vegetarian organic nutrients (no animal products or Chilean Nitrate are added), is suitable for vegans, is non-GMO, is gluten free, herbicide and pesticide free, and although Parry have obtained organic certifications from USDA and OCIA (USA), Ecocert (France), and Naturland (Germany), PlantPills has not yet applied for organic certification in the UK, so we can not yet claim that our spirulina is organic, and do not sell it as organic.

PlantPills spirulina comes in powder or 200 mg tablets, significantly smaller and easier to take than the larger 500mg supplied by the majority of producers.

Every batch of PlantPills Spirulina is independently verified by third-party laboratories to have no dangerous levels of heavy metals or micro-organisms. The certifications for the current batch are viewable below. Every single batch is thoroughly tested in-house to confirm the absence of BMAA/microcystin.

Pack sizes are 250 grams, 500 grams, 1 kilogram, 2 kilograms and 10 kilograms (selectable in the basket).

PlantPills Spirulina COAs

Independent third party Analysis Certificates

USP Verified ISO GMP 14001/9001 ISO 22000 Certified Halal Certified Kosher

It is imperative that spirulina is transported and stored in an oxygen-free environment, even after opening. If spirulina is exposed to oxygen, the nutritional value quickly starts to diminish, because vitamins, enzymes and antioxidants are particularly sensitive to oxygen.

PlantPills spirulina is supplied in our unique PillFresh™ packaging, which keeps the spirulina sealed in an environment with an oxygen content of less than 0.1%. After you open your PlantPills spirulina, just seal it back up, and incredibly, our unique PillFresh™ packaging will again reduce the oxygen content to less than 0.1%, continuing to keep the spirulina fresh.

This packaging will continue to do this time and time again, for 40 openings.

Other vendors package spirulina tablets in plastic tubs, or "vacuum sealed" aluminium pouches. Plastic tubs are permeable to oxygen, so are no use for keeping spirulina fresh. Tablets in aluminium pouches are difficult to vacuum seal, and this type of vacuum sealing typically contains at least 2% oxygen. This is enough oxygen to start diminishing the nutritional value, and considering mould can grow in air with a 0.3% oxygen content, this really isn't acceptable.

It is therefore pretty certain that a significant amount of nutrition is lost before a typical package of spirulina is even opened by the consumer. Then, after opening, the exposure to oxygen quickly starts to diminish the nutritional value further. While our PillFresh packaging maintains 100% (or very close to 100%) of the nutrients, typical packaging will result in a 37% loss in beta carotene content after four weeks, and an 85% loss in chlorophyll content after 8 weeks.

PillFresh™ packaging is truly innovative, and exclusive to PlantPills.

Unfortunately, not all spirulina is the same. It is very important to know the source of the spirulina you eat, as it has a huge bearing on whether it is as nutritious as it should be, and if it is even safe to consume.

The best quality spirulina comes from reputable companies which have been producing spirulina for decades. Such companies have vast experience and knowledge of growing, harvesting and processing good quality spirulina. They will provide Certificate of Analysis' (COAs), completed by third party testing labs. This ensures the spirulina is of a high quality and is safe.

If the vendor or retailer of the spirulina for sale can not or will not provide you with the name of the producer, and a COA from a third party (a document from the testing lab, NOT the producer or vendor), do not buy the spirulina.

With no producer or valid COA (not just numbers typed into a website or an email from the vendor), you really don’t know what you are buying. It doesn’t matter if it’s even labelled as organic, from “pristine waters of Hainan, China”, or have impressive looking claims on their website, you really don’t know what you are buying.

Spirulina from China can be animal feed grade (not safe for humans), cut with fillers, roasted for a long time at very high temperatures in an attempt to kill harmful bacteria (the roasted, nutty smell is obvious), have high levels of heavy metals, or could even be contaminated.

An analysis of contaminated algae product for sale (by the FDA in America) found adult flies and adult fly fragments, maggots and maggot fragments, ants and ant fragments, cicada and cicada fragments, hundreds of other insect fragments, ticks, mites, ostracods, rat or mouse hairs, bird feathers, and water fleas.

In 2008, a Chinese milk scandal was exposed in which 6 babies died and hundreds of thousands of others became ill after melamine was added to raw milk to make it appear higher in protein. This further damaged China’s reputation for producing safe and reliable food products.

Spirulina from China is the cheapest available, and is often classified as organic. However, the "organic" classification has no relevance to nutritional content, purity, or contamination.

The fact is that without even knowing the producer, and without having regular nutritional and safety analysis from a reputable third party laboratory, spirulina from China (or anywhere else for that matter) is not a verifiable, reliable, good quality source of safe spirulina.