it's a heterotropic protist, meaning it's really more like an animal than a plant (although it can photosynthesize, too). so, this is confusing. what kind of vitamin k can it produce? can it produce vitamin d? vitamin b12? and, how much am i getting in the gram of it condensed into the teaspoon of oil?
it's not one of the species that's been marketed as a superfood, most of which are cyanobacteria. it's historically mostly been used as a feed product. so, most of the studies are more concerned about measuring what it does to the commercial value of whatever livestock. nobody seems interested in measuring the nutritional value.
further, the value of algae can change dramatically by both species and collection method. this is actually grown in an indoor tank using tap water, not harvested from a lake or ocean. so, there's essentially no concerns about pollutants, and they might accidentally be super-charging it with uv light.
the answers are actually quite surprising; this is really potentially a very potent source of nutrients, with potentially scary amounts of pro-vitamin d, retinol, b12 and k. if you weren't careful, you could easily overdose on this. which is why i wish they were clearer on the label.
as it is, i have to do some guesswork, so it's been more time consuming than desired. but it's almost there.
as an aside, the algal oil also seem to be making my body odour smell like strawberries. i can get used to that :)