Seaweeds have received huge interest in recent years given their promising potentialities. Their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, hypolipemic, and anticoagulant effects are among the most renowned and studied bioactivities so far, and these effects have been increasingly associated with their content and richness in both primary and secondary metabolites. Although primary metabolites have a pivotal importance such as their content in polysaccharides (fucoidans, agars, carragenans, ulvans, alginates, and laminarin), recent data have shown that the content in some secondary metabolites largely determines the effective bioactive potential of seaweeds. Among these secondary metabolites, phenolic compounds feature prominently. The present review provides the most remarkable insights into seaweed research, specifically addressing its chemical composition, phytopharmacology, and cosmetic applications.

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/22/4182/pdf

Current Trends on Seaweeds: Looking at Chemical Composition, Phytopharmacology, and Cosmetic Applications.

Application of marine-derived polysaccharides as immunostimulants in aquaculture: A review of current knowledge and further perspectives.

Fucoidans are widespread cost-effective sulfated marine polysaccharides which have raised interest in the scientific community over last decades for their wide spectrum of bioactivities. Unsurprisingly, nanomedicine has grasped these compounds to develop innovative therapeutic and diagnostic nanosystems. The applications of fucoidans in nanomedicine as imaging agents, drug carriers or for their intrinsic properties are reviewed here after a short presentation of the main structural data and biological properties of fucoidans. The origin and the physicochemical specifications of fucoidans are summarized in order to discuss the strategy of fucoidan-containing nanosystems in Human health. Currently, there is a need for reproducible, well characterized fucoidan fractions to ensure significant progress.

Fucoidans in Nanomedicine.

The proximate composition, vitamin C, I±-tocopherol, dietary fibers, minerals, fatty acid and amino acid profiles of three tropical edible seaweeds, Eucheuma cottonii (Rhodophyta), Caulerpa lentillifera (Chlorophyta) and Sargassum polycystum (Phaeophyta) were studied. The seaweeds were high in ash (37.15â€“46.19%) and dietary fibers (25.05â€“39.67%) and low in lipid content (0.29â€“1.11%) on dry weight (DW) basis. These seaweeds contained 12.01â€“15.53% macro-minerals (Na, K, Ca and Mg) and 7.53â€“71.53 mg.100 gâˆ’1 trace minerals (Fe, Zn, Cu, Se and I). The crude protein content of E. cottonii (9.76% DW) and C. lentillifera (10.41% DW) were higher than that of S. polycystum (5.4% DW), and protein chemical scores are between 20 and 67%. The PUFA content of E. cottonii was 51.55%, C. lentillifera 16.76% and S. polycystum 20.34%. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), accounted for 24.98% of all fatty acids in E. cottonii.
These seaweeds have significant vitamin C (âˆ¼35 mg.100 gâˆ’1) and I±-tocopherol (5.85â€“11.29 mg.100 gâˆ’1) contents.

Nutrient content of tropical edible seaweeds, Eucheuma cottonii, Caulerpa lentillifera and Sargassum polycystum. J Appl Phycol

Fucoidans are sulfated polysaccharides from brown seaweeds with a variety of biological properties, which are dependent on both their composition and structure, and are determined by the extraction process. The molecular weight of fucoidan, associated with the biological activities and with its bioavailability, can be influenced by the extraction technologies and further depolymerization can be attained during a subsequent processing stage. The conventional technologies for extraction are surveyed and the potential of emerging techniques aiming at enhancing yields, selectivity and bioactivity is discussed.

Potential of intensification techniques for the extraction and depolymerization of fucoidan

Article history: Received on: 17/03/2016 Revised on: 05/05/2016 Accepted on: 02/06/2016 Available online: 29/10/2016 Fucoidan used as immunostimulant is commonly in the crude form. In this study, we investigated the effect of fucoidan in both crude and purified forms in their immunostimulatory activity. In addition, we studied the effect of lowand high-molecular weight fucoidan as hydrolysis products toward immunostimulatory activity. Four kinds of fucoidan were assayed for immunostimulant activity on the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. The parameters observed in the assay includes the mortality number, haemocyte, gene-related immunity (phenoloxidase, superoxide dismutase and transglutaminase) in the shrimps infected with viral WSSV. The assay results showed that pure fucoidan exhibited higher activity compared with that of crude fucoidan. Sulfate and carbohydrate content of HMW fucoidan are 7.8 % and 82.54 % with an estimated molecular weight of 8.28 x10 4 Dalton, and low molecular weight (LMW) fucoidan has 1.2% and 65.23% with an estimated molecular weight of 7.53 x10 4 Dalton. The transcriptional level of the immunity-related genes was found higher after feeding the infected shrimps with purified and HMW fucoidan. In particular, all of fucoidan forms increased the phenoloxidase gene transcription, suggesting that fucoidan have significant role in the production of phenoloxidase.

Immunostimulatory activity of brown seaweed-derived fucoidans at different molecular weights and purity levels towards white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei.

The brown seaweed Sargassumsp. is well known as a source of fucoidan. Brown seaweeds found in Indonesia seas are dominated by Sargassum sp.The objectives of this research was to purify and characterize fucoidan from S. binderi Sonder. The fresh raw material was defatted by macerated in methanol:chloroform:water (4:2:1), filtered, rinsed with acetone and then air-dried in room temperature. The defatted dried seaweed was extracted with 0.01M HCl pH 4 at room temperature. Purification has been conducted using anion exchanger. The quality of fucoidan sample was determined for total sugar, functional group using FTIR, monomer content, total ash, and total sulfate in the ester form. The result shows that pure fucoidan contains fucose as the primary sugar component, and other minor sugars (galactose, glucose, mannose and xylose). Chemical composition of crude fucoidan consisted of 74.25% fucose; 0.28% uronate acid; 10.29% sulfate and 5.5% protein. Purification using DEAE Sephadex A-25 gave 4 fraction pools yielding total sugar (%) of F1 (17.59); F2 (18.92); F3 (13.72); F4 (49.76), respectively. The components that build the fucoidan of S. binderi Sonder were estimated derived to be from fucoidan oligomers including (1,4)-L-FucS-Gal and D-(1,4)-Gal-GalS.

https://www.bbp4b.litbang.kkp.go.id/squalen-bulletin/index.php/squalen/article/download/133/131

Purification and Characterization of Fucoidan from the Brown Seaweed Sargassum binderi Sonder

Fucoidan has many uses in the field of pharmacology, therefore it is necessary to improve the quality of fucoidan by increasing its purity. The objective of this study was to remove brown pigment from seaweed and observe the effect of the result to the activity of isolated fucoidan. In this study, the pigment was removed by organic solvents in the maceration step. The pigment removal using ethanol was found to give a better result than that of the solvent mixture (methanol: chloroform: water) from previous study, indicated by the appearance of fucoidan color. The result showed fucoidan has a better color, total carbohydrate was 89.23% and total sulphate 18.74%.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/299/1/012027/pdf

Depigmentation and Characterization of Fucoidan from Brown Seaweed Sargassum binderi Sonder

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/546/4/042043/pdf

The Chemical Properties of Seaweed Caulerpa lentifera from Takalar, South Sulawesi

Pemakaian karaginan sudah sangat luas, baik dalam pangan maupun non pangan. Namun dalam aplikasinya masih terbatas karena banyak kelemahan dalam sifat fungsionalnya. Untuk memperbaiki kelemahan sifat fungsional tersebut, dalam penelitian ini dilakukan formulasi campuran antara karaginan dengan gum yaitu gum arabik, guar gum, Locust Bean Gum (LBG) dan konjak dengan harapan bahan campuran ini dapat menyempurnakan fungsi karaginan dalam aplikasinya. Dalam penelitian ini dibuat formulasi campuran karaginan dengan gum dengan rasio 1:3, 1:1 dan 3:1.  Dari hasil analisis diperoleh kesimpulan adanya peningkatan kekuatan gel pada formula campuran antara k-karaginan dan konjak pada rasio 1:1 dengan nilai 1276 g/cm2  dan k-karaginan dengan LBG pada rasio 1:1 dengan nilai 225 g/cm2. Peningkatan viskositas juga terjadi pada formulasi campuran antara k-karaginan dengan konjak pada rasio 1:3 dengan viskositas sebesar 4510 cPs dan pada formulasi campuran antara k-karaginan dengan LBG pada rasio 1:3 dengan nilai 817 cPs. Hal yang sama juga terjadi pada formulasi campuran antara i-karaginan dengan konjak pada rasio 1:3  dengan nilai 4775 cPs dan i-karaginan dengan guar gum pada rasio 1:3 dengan nilai viskositas 2936 cPs. Hasil ini menunjukkan adanya pengaruh nyata penambahan gum pada karaginan terhadap viskositasnya.

https://www.bbp4b.litbang.kkp.go.id/jurnal-jpbkp/index.php/jpbkp/article/download/82/57

Ellya Sinurat

Papers

Immunostimulatory activity of brown seaweed-derived fucoidans at different molecular weights and purity levels towards white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei.

Purification and Characterization of Fucoidan from the Brown Seaweed Sargassum binderi Sonder

Depigmentation and Characterization of Fucoidan from Brown Seaweed Sargassum binderi Sonder

The Chemical Properties of Seaweed Caulerpa lentifera from Takalar, South Sulawesi

Sifat Fungsional Formula Kappa dan Iota Karaginan dengan Gum