Applications of Algal Polysaccharides and Derivatives in Therapeutic and Agricultural Fields

Abstract

Background: Recently, researchers have given more and more consideration to natural polysaccharides thanks to their huge properties such as stability, biodegradability and biocompatibility for food and therapeutics applications. Methods: a number of enzymatic and chemical processes were performed to generate bioactive molecules, such as low molecular weight fractions and oligosaccharides derivatives from algal polysaccharides. Results: These considerable characteristics allow algal polysaccharides and their derivatives such as low molecular weight polymers and oligosaccharides structures to have great potential to be used in lots of domains, such as pharmaceutics and agriculture etc. Conclusion: The present review describes the mains polysaccharides structures from Algae and focuses on the currents agricultural (fertilizer, bio-elicitor, stimulators, signaling molecules and activators) and pharmaceutical (wound dressing, tissues engineering and drugs delivery) applications by using polysaccharides and/or their oligosaccharides derivatives obtained by chemical, physical and enzymatic processes.

Prospect of Polysaccharide-Based Materials as Advanced Food Packaging

“…As described above, polysaccharides are abundantly present in lot of biomasses such as plant and microorganisms. If it is considered marine biotopes, seaweeds and crustaceans are the most important sources of polysaccharides [183,184]. Consequently, the last 2 decades lots of marine polysaccharides such as chitosan, alginate, agar-agar, and carrageenan have been largely described for their techno-functional applications.…”

“…After this hard-chemical treatment, produced chitosan become soluble in acidic medium (HCl, acetic acid, lactic acid…). Chitosan and its derivatives have numerous applications such as biomaterial for production of tissues, skin and other materials [183,[187][188][189].…”

“…CS films have a selective permeability to gases such as O 2 and CO 2 and good mechanical properties. Nevertheless, lots of studies well-shown that CS film has high water sensitivity which reduce barrier properties [183,190]. Consequently, several strategies were proposed, in terms of blending CS with: (i) polymers such as cellulose, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), gelatin, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and (ii) citric acid, glycerol, genipin as plasticizers and cross-linkers in order to enhance water-resistance while maintaining high biodegradability [191][192][193][194].…”

“…Consequently, several strategies were proposed, in terms of blending CS with: (i) polymers such as cellulose, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), gelatin, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and (ii) citric acid, glycerol, genipin as plasticizers and cross-linkers in order to enhance water-resistance while maintaining high biodegradability [191][192][193][194]. Moreover, it was particularly described the excellent coating and film-forming abilities coupled with a very good intrinsic antimicrobial property against fungi and bacteria as largely described in the literature [183,184,195,196]. In recent years, all these features were exploited by lots of research groups using CS in packaging field and more especially in the development of innovative and very promising active food packaging such as antimicrobial packaging [197,198].…”

Marine Bacteria versus Microalgae: Who Is the Best for Biotechnological Production of Bioactive Compounds with Antioxidant Properties and Other Biological Applications?

“…For a long time, most of the antioxidant ingredients such as phenolic compounds, pigments, polysaccharides, and carotenoids were extracted from plants, fruits, and seaweeds [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Concerning seaweed, relative polysaccharides and pigment compounds have been validated as efficient antioxidants through various techniques such as 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH•) scavenging assay, hydroxyl/superoxide radicals (•OH/O 2 − •) scavenging assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), or lipid peroxidation inhibition capacity assay [18,[21][22][23].…”