Dados do Trabalho

Título

GROWTH AND TRENDS IN BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION ON SPIRULINA (1987-2024)

Introdução

Brazil is the fourth most productive country (8.0% of global scientific production) in studies on spirulina, a blue-green algae considered a superfood due to its dense and varied nutritional composition including a high content of proteins (>45%), vitamins (A, C and E), minerals and essential fatty acids.

Material e Métodos

This study presents the first scientometric analysis of Brazilian scientific literature on spirulina from the Scopus database (1967- Apr, 2024), which systematically examined the evolution of this research in Brazil. The keywords used in the search were spirulina descriptors from DeCS/MeSH and genus/species described by FAO. The descriptive analysis was carried out using Scopus, Microsoft Excel and CiteSpace. Fom 9,196 studies retrieved, 511 articles performed by Brazilian researchers were eligible for scientometric analysis.

Resultados e Discussão

Significant growth in scientific research in Brazil occurred over the last two decades and the greatest increase in scientific production occurred from 2018 onwards. The number of publications increased fivefold from 2003 to 2023 (2020 was the record year). The number of citations has increased 5.8 times in the last decade (2012-2022). The H index of 67 indicates exceptional scientific production, reflecting the relevance of the Brazilian scientific research. The most prominent researcher is Jorge Alberto Vieira Costa, who published 27.3% of Brazilian production. He placed the Federal University of Rio Grande as the most productive Brazilian institution in this area of study (40.0% of production), followed by the University of São Paulo (16.4%). Both lead the largest institutional clusters and had the highest centralities and citation counts. Agricultural and Biological Sciences (37.3%), Chemical Engineering (30.3%), Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (24.4%), Environmental Sciences (21.7%) and Energy (19.9%) are the five most important areas of research on spirulina in Brazil. The main Journal is Bioresource Technology (covered 8.2% of total production). Brazil collaborates with nine other countries, with Italy being the main one, participating in 7.8% of total Brazilian production. Capes (42.0%) and CNPq (33.4%), government funding agencies, are the main financiers of scientific research.

Conclusão

Studies on spirulina are in increasing progress in Brazil, mainly in the last twenty years, focunsing mainly in studies related to Agricultural and Biological Sciences.