Brown seaweed Cystoseiraschiffneri as a promising source of sulfated fucans: Seasonal variability of structural, chemical, and antioxidant properties

Abstract

A fucoidan, sulfated polysaccharide, was extracted from the brown seaweed Cystoseira schiffneri during 4 harvest periods (December, April, July, and September) and studied for its structural and chemical properties. The Cystoseira schiffneri fucoidan (CSF) showed important variation in sulfate content ranging from 7.8% in December to 34.8% in July. This was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies showing characteristic signals of sulfated polysaccharides. Molecular mass of the CSF varied as a function of season from 3,745 in December to 26,390 Da in July. Gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy showed that CSF fractions were “mannogalactofucans” composed mainly of mannose, fucose, and galactose with low levels of other monosaccharides. Moreover, interesting in vitro antioxidant activities that depend on the harvest season were noted for CSF. Thus, the present work might contribute to establish criteria for extracting bioactive fucoidans from an endemic Tunisian seaweed C. schiffneri.

Purification and Molecular Characterization of Fucoidan Isolated from Ascophyllum nodosum Brown Seaweed Grown in Ireland

“…Recently, Okolie et al [ 21 ] extracted fucoidan from A. nodosum using a number of extraction methods and reported molecular weight values of 2.7 kDa–136.3 kDa. The difference in the molecular weight of fucoidan is mainly attributed to seaweed species, harvesting location, seasonal variation, climatic conditions, and extraction/purification method used [ 10 , 40 , 41 ]. Several studies that involve the characterisation of fucoidan by mass spectroscopy perform hydrolysis of the molecule.…”

Influence of natural polysaccharides on the morphology and properties of hybrid vaterite microcrystals

“…Some polysaccharides with chelating ability towards ferrous ions are poor effective hydroxyl radical scavengers [ 64 ] while some are hydroxyl radical scavengers with no iron-chelating activity [ 66 ]. Chelation of Fe 2+ ions depends mostly on sulfate groups and their distribution in the molecules [ 67 ] while radical scavenging is affected also by monosaccharide composition [ 68 ].…”

Sulfated Galactofucans: An Outstanding Class of Fucoidans with Promising Bioactivities

“…The aforementioned characteristics of fucoidans were demonstrated to be highly dependent on many factors, including downstream processes such as extraction either by classical solvent or non-conventional extraction methods [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], fractionation and purification methods [ 23 , 24 , 25 ], biogenic sources [ 24 , 26 , 27 ], and season of harvesting [ 28 ]. For instance, fucoidans isolated from sea cucumber showed a homogeneous chemical structure in comparison with brown seaweeds [ 27 ].…”