The effectiveness of the Fucus virsoides and Cystoseira barbata fucoidan isolation as a function of applied pre-treatment and extraction conditions

Abstract

Fucus virsoides and Cystoseira barbata are important sources of sulfated polysaccharide fucoidan which shows a wide range of biological activities. These activities are significantly dependent on chemical composition which is influenced by species, anatomical part of the seaweed, growing location and conditions, extraction procedures and analytical methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate influence of various pre-treatment solvents and conventional extraction parameters (solvent, temperature and time) on polysaccharide yield and chemical composition (total sugar, fucose, sulfate group and uronic acid content) of the fucoidan from F. virsoides and C. barbata. Combination of acetone and ethanol was chosen for pre-treatment since it removed the most interfering compounds and resulted with the highest polysaccharide yield. Applying acid (0.1 M HCl and 0.1 M H2SO4) instead of water for polysaccharide extraction improved yield and resulted with fucoidan with higher sulfate group content, lower uronic acid content but lower fucose content. Extraction at higher temperatures and longer time resulted with higher polysaccharide yield, uronic acid and total sugars content. However, they had the opposite effect on fucose and sulfate group content between F. virsoides and C. barbata.