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Introduction to Seaweed Polysaccharides

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DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-809816-5.00001-3

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 CH AP T E R 1

Introduction to Seaweed Polysaccharides

Jayachandran Venkatesan*, Sukumaran Anil**, Se-Kwon Kim†
*Pukyong National University, Busan, South Korea; **Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz
University, AI-Kharj, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; †Pukyong National University,
Busan, South Korea

INTRODUCTION
Seaweed (Macroalgae) is a multicellular species, commonly subdivided into
red, green, and blue algae due to their pigmentation according to phyla,
rhodophyta, heterocontophyta, and chlorophyte. These seaweeds are widely
utilized in food, medicine, fertilizer, and bioethanol (Horn, 2009) produc-
tion. The chemical compositions of seaweeds are carbohydrates, proteins,
minerals, lipids, and so on (Ito and Hori, 1989; Marinho-Soriano et al., 2006;
Painter, 1983; Renn, 1997; Schiener et al., 2015).

PRODUCTION OF SEAWEEDS
Seaweed Polysaccharides
Polysaccharides produced from seaweed (microalgae) have gained much
attention by industrialist and researcher to expand the global industry
(Fig. 1.1). The important seaweed polysaccharides are alginate (El Atouani
et al., 2016; Sellimi et al., 2015), agar (Hii et al., 2016; Rhein-Knudsen
et al., 2015), agaroses (Meena et al., 2014; Sharma et al., 2015), and
carrageenan (Aliste et al., 2000; van de Velde et al., 2002), which is com-
monly used in food product preparation.

Alginate
Alginate is an anionic polymers commonly isolated form brown seaweed
(Lee and Mooney, 2012), it has been extensively utilized in food applica-
tion to maintain the structure in frozen food (Hu et al., 2014), salad dress-
ing (Silva et al., 2013). Recently, alginate are playing major r​ole in several
1
Seaweed Polysaccharides. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809816-5.00001-3
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 CHAPTER 1:   Introduction to Seaweed Polysaccharides

FIGURE 1.1 Seaweed production countries.

(FAO, 2017). From Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Fisheries and aquaculture
software. FishStatJ - software for fishery statistical time series. In: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture
Department [online]. Rome. Updated 21 July 2016. [Cited 10 January 2017], http://www.fao.org/fishery/
statistics/software/fishstatj/en#downlDataset, Reproduced with permission.

other biomedical field, such as tableting agent (Rahim et al., 2015), matrix

for immobilized system (Jain and Bar-Shalom, 2014; Kim et al., 2017), dental
impression materials (Al-Enazi and Naik, 2016; Demajo et al., 2016), tissue
engineering (Venkatesan et al., 2014b, 2015a,b), and drug delivery (Agarwal
et al., 2015; Boekhoven et al., 2015). The publication on alginate h
​ as increased
threefold time from 2005 onwards. It is clearly infering that the utilization &
new usage of alginate is increasing day by day. (Fig 1.2).

Carrageenan
Carrageenan is sulfated polysaccharides, commonly isolated from red
seaweed. It has been widely utilized in food industry as thickening (Saha and
Bhattacharya, 2010), gelling (Prajapati et al., 2014), stabilizing agent (Yuan
et al., 2014), air freshener gels (Allison and O’leary, 2016), and toothpaste
binder (Chandrasekaran and Iyer, 2016; Rahardjo et al., 2013). Recently, the
utilization of carrageenan is increasing in other areas, such as drug delivery
(Li et al., 2014), tissue engineering (Popa et al., 2015), and biosensor applica-
tions (Esmaeili et al., 2017; Ooi et al., 2015). The research on carrageenan ​is
increasing steadily from the last decade (Fig. 1.3).
 Production of Seaweeds 3

FIGURE 1.2 Scopus indexed articles on alginate.

FIGURE 1.3 Scopus indexed articles on carrageenan.

4 CHAPTER 1:   Introduction to Seaweed Polysaccharides

FIGURE 1.4 Scopus indexed articles on fucoidan.

Fucoidan
Fucoidan is sulfated polysaccharide, commonly found in brown algae. The ap-
plication of fucoidan is gaining much attention in the researcher area due to
its bioactivity. It has been used a nutraceutical purpose (Fitton et al., 2007).
Recently, it has been tried for cancer treatment (Kwak, 2014). In addition to
this, fucoidan can be utilized in tissue engineering (Jeong et al., 2013; Jin and
Kim, 2011; Lee et al., 2012; Puvaneswary et al., 2015; Venkatesan et al., 2014a)
(Fig. 1.4).

Ulvan
Ulvan is a sulfated polysaccharide, commonly isolated from green algae
(Chiellini and Morelli, 2011). Ulvan has been checked as antioxidant (Qi
et al., 2005, 2006), anticoagulant (Chiellini and Morelli, 2011), immuno-
modulation activity (Leiro et al., 2007), antihyperlipidemic activity (Qi
et al., 2012a,b), tissue engineering (Alves et al., 2012a,b; Dash et al., 2014) and
drug delivery (Alves et al., 2012b). The research on ulvan is not extensive, only
limited literature is available on Scopus database. This is inferring that there is
need to do several researches on ulvan (Fig. 1.5).
 Production of Seaweeds 5

FIGURE 1.5 Scopus indexed articles on ulvan.

Commercial Value of Seaweed Polysaccharides

Seaweeds are consumed as a food in Asia Pacific region. The major commercial
values of seaweed are ​increasing with its chemical constituent like alginate, car-
rageenan, and agar. These polysaccharides are extensively utilized in food and
industrial applications. It has been estimated that seaweed polysaccharides
companies are running in millions of dollars. The main important processes are
the cultivation, processing, harvesting, isolation/extract of polysaccharides and
their applications. The commercial values of seaweed polysaccharide increas-
es in the modern research, for example, utilization of alginate and carrageen
in tissue engineering, drug-delivery products. These modern applications
definitely will increase the commercial values of seaweed polysaccharides
(BeMiller and Whistler, 2012; McHugh, 1987; Renn, 1997).

Organization of Seaweed Polysaccharides Book

In the first part of the book, we deliberated an outline on seaweed polysac-
charides and their applications. Then, various novel and interesting tech-
niques of isolation and characterization of seaweed polysaccharides, such as,
microwave assisted extraction, enzymatic extraction techniques, conventional
method, ultrasonic assisted method, and supercritical extraction methods are
discussed. Furthermore, the chemical modification of polysaccharides (like
amination, acetylation, oxidation, phosphorylation, and sulfation) that gives
6 CHAPTER 1:   Introduction to Seaweed Polysaccharides

added advantages in biological and biomedical applications are enumerated

and discussed. In the later part of the book, biological applications of seaweed-
derived polysaccharides as anticancer, antioxidant, antihyperlipidemic, an-
ticoagulation, and antiinflammation are exhaustively discussed. Finally, we
discuss the biomedical applications of seaweed polysaccharides in wound
dressing, tissue engineering, drug delivery, and dental applications. Even
though, the potential of seaweed polysaccharide in biological and biomedical
application is in premature stage, each chapter within the book will be pre-
sented uniquely to discuss the full gamut its potential use. We are confident
that latest information on isolations; biological and biomedical applications
of seaweed polysaccharides will be helpful for the novice and expand their
ideas in multiple areas.

CONCLUSIONS
Alginate and carrageenan are extensively studied seaweed polysaccharides in
several industrial applications. In the case of fucoidan, there is huge amount
of research on the way, whereas ulvan, small amount of research has been con-
ducted. However, bioactivity of seaweed polysaccharides is based on the purity,
molecular weight, and chemical composition.

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