Abstract
The severe eutrophication of coastal areas is considered to be one of the most serious environmental threats of our time S. Nixon, Ambio 19 (1990) 101. Even if the nutrient outlet is curtailed, carpets of green algae filaments will remain for a long time as the algae life cycle feeds itself S. Naeem, D.R. Hahn, G. Schuurman, Nature 403 (2002) 762. One way to master this ecological problem is to remove algae from the cycle O. Jousson, J. Pawlowski, L. Zaninetti, F.W. Zechman, F. Dini, G. Di Guiseppe, R. Woodfield, A. Millar, A. Meinensz, Nature 408 (2000) 157. Hence, the necessity of finding some relevant use for green algae is obvious. It has been shown that cellulose powder from green algae sources has a higher level of crystallinity and a relatively larger surface area than higher plant cellulose R. Ek, C. Gustafsson, A. Nutt, T. Iversen, C, Nyström, J. Mol. Recognit. 11 (1998) 263. Could these properties possibly be advantageous in pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing? Here, we show that green algae filaments provide an alternative raw material source for the production of microcrystalline cellulose with a hitherto unobserved combination of properties desirable for a tableting excipient.
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