High-value products from macroalgae: the potential uses of the invasive brown seaweed, Sargassum muticum

Abstract

Marine seaweeds represent an abundant source of natural products and may harbour valuable chemicals. The brown seaweed Sargassum muticum is an invasive species to the coasts of the British Isles, mainland Europe and North America. Attempts at its eradication and control have generally not been successful, although time-consuming and costly. Commercial exploration of this biomass for food, fuel and pharmaceutical products could encourage its harvesting and control. Though S. muticum might be unsuitable as a source of biofuel due to high ash and water content, this rapidly growing macroalga has a naturally high content of antioxidants, carotenoids and phenols, including the well-known anti-cancer compound fucoxanthin, making this species a potential source of a range of pharmaceutically relevant materials.

Golden Tides: Problem or Golden Opportunity? The Valorisation of Sargassum from Beach Inundations

“…Fucoidans from seaweeds can have a wide range of molecular masses, extending from 8 to at least 627 kDa [61]. The molecular biology, biochemistry, and enzymology of fucan and fucoidan production in brown seaweeds and Sargassum, in particular, is a relatively underexplored area with considerable promise for future commercialisation [30]. S. natans has a sulphur content of 1.4% dw, and could contain a number of sulphated carbohydrates that may have potential commercial value.…”

“…A group of essential fatty acids known as omega-3s (a group of unsaturated fatty acids where a carbon double bond is in the third position from the methyl or omega end) are attracting a lot of attention currently, as they exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity and other health benefits [74][75][76]. Seaweeds are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), although there is considerable variation in the lipid profile between species [30,42].…”

“…Attempts to eradicate S. muticum have failed [28], and methods are being researched for its valorisation to encourage harvesting and control [29,30]. S. muticum has been suggested as a source of biochemicals, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals [30,31]; a biorefinery feedstock [29]; and a biofuel feedstock [32][33][34].…”

UK Macro-Algae Biofuels: A Strategic Management Review and Future Research Agenda

“…The paper "Macroalgae-Derived Biofuel: A Review of Methods of Energy Extraction from Seaweed Biomass" [44] provides an overview of the different methods of energy extraction making comparisons between them for readers who are interested in the technological aspects which are not the focus of this paper. Additionally, further research has increased our understanding of the various aspects of using seaweed as a potential biofuel examining issues such as ensilage, anaerobic digestion and slow pyrolysis [46][47][48], beach seaweed [49], dewatering treatments [44,50], potential products from seaweed [51], and a range of process hurdles [52].…”

Zeewier en natuurlijk kapitaal : kansen voor een biobased economy

“…Onderzoek naar diverse gezondsheidseffecten van zeewier (Venkatesan et al, 2015;Milledge et al, 2015) Grondstof voor groene chemie Experimenteel onderzoek en proof of principle (Van der Wal et al, 2013) Biofertilizer Gebruik voor stimuleren van plantengroei in land-en tuinbouw (Hernandez-Herrera, 2014). Kan ook het restproduct uit bioraffinage betreffen (Costa et al, 2012) Biobrandstoffen Experimenteel onderzoek toont technische haalbaarheid aan (Milledge et al, 2014).…”