5.4 Availability of Raw Materials
101
5.4 Availability of Raw Materials
Brown algae, one of the two sources of fucoidan, are dominant in many coastal
regions and are already readily available as a food product in many Asian cuisines.
It is also gaining popularity in Western and other economies for its health benefits.
The chapter on alginate has discussed the global availability of brown algae. Taking
an example crude yield of 4.02% fucoidan by dry weight of brown algae (Sinurat
et al. 2015) and using Norway, the highest producer in Europe, as an example brown
algae producing country where 154,230 tonnes of brown algae is harvested from
wild stocks annually (Monagail et al. 2017), this means 6200 tonnes of fucoidan is
attainable from brown algae resource in Norway annually. As we will discuss in the
latter sections of this chapter, the yield, structure and bioactivity of fucoidans are
very species specific. This variation means that while biopolymers such as alginate
from brown algae could be mass extracted from a mixture of species of brown algae,
fucoidans need to be extracted in species-specific batches to obtain more specific
bioactivity.
Echinoderms, which comprised of species such as starfish, sea urchins and sea
cucumbers, are aquatic animals which also are a source of fucoidans. Some echinoderms such as sea cucumbers are consumed by humans as food. Sea cucumbers can be
found in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern parts of the Atlantic Ocean (Chang
et al. 2015). Species which have been explored for fucoidan production include
Holothuria tubulosa, Stichopus japonicus, Apostichopus japonicus and Acaudina
molpadioides among several others. The reproductive rate of algae is much faster
than that of sea cucumber which although is moderate compared to other invertebrates in the sea and is currently declining in population due to increasing interest
as a functional food with bioactivities such as anticoagulant and antioxidant effects
(Chang et al. 2015; Qin et al. 2018). Commercial fucoidan production should therefore focus more on extraction from brown algae or at least diversify production of
fucoidan from more than a single source.
In the bid to achieve standardized fucoidan-based product with consistent and
controllable chemical structures and hence bioactivity, some research work has gone
into developing enzymes involved in fucoidan synthesis and development of cell
cultures which express the genes to produce the desired fucoidan chemical structure
(Kasai et al. 2015).
5.5 Extraction of Fucoidans
Various methods exist for extraction of fucoidan, and here we shall look at some
of them. The type of extraction and purification method strongly determines the
structure and bioactivity of fucoidan (Ponce et al. 2003).
101
5.4 Availability of Raw Materials
Brown algae, one of the two sources of fucoidan, are dominant in many coastal
regions and are already readily available as a food product in many Asian cuisines.
It is also gaining popularity in Western and other economies for its health benefits.
The chapter on alginate has discussed the global availability of brown algae. Taking
an example crude yield of 4.02% fucoidan by dry weight of brown algae (Sinurat
et al. 2015) and using Norway, the highest producer in Europe, as an example brown
algae producing country where 154,230 tonnes of brown algae is harvested from
wild stocks annually (Monagail et al. 2017), this means 6200 tonnes of fucoidan is
attainable from brown algae resource in Norway annually. As we will discuss in the
latter sections of this chapter, the yield, structure and bioactivity of fucoidans are
very species specific. This variation means that while biopolymers such as alginate
from brown algae could be mass extracted from a mixture of species of brown algae,
fucoidans need to be extracted in species-specific batches to obtain more specific
bioactivity.
Echinoderms, which comprised of species such as starfish, sea urchins and sea
cucumbers, are aquatic animals which also are a source of fucoidans. Some echinoderms such as sea cucumbers are consumed by humans as food. Sea cucumbers can be
found in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern parts of the Atlantic Ocean (Chang
et al. 2015). Species which have been explored for fucoidan production include
Holothuria tubulosa, Stichopus japonicus, Apostichopus japonicus and Acaudina
molpadioides among several others. The reproductive rate of algae is much faster
than that of sea cucumber which although is moderate compared to other invertebrates in the sea and is currently declining in population due to increasing interest
as a functional food with bioactivities such as anticoagulant and antioxidant effects
(Chang et al. 2015; Qin et al. 2018). Commercial fucoidan production should therefore focus more on extraction from brown algae or at least diversify production of
fucoidan from more than a single source.
In the bid to achieve standardized fucoidan-based product with consistent and
controllable chemical structures and hence bioactivity, some research work has gone
into developing enzymes involved in fucoidan synthesis and development of cell
cultures which express the genes to produce the desired fucoidan chemical structure
(Kasai et al. 2015).
5.5 Extraction of Fucoidans
Various methods exist for extraction of fucoidan, and here we shall look at some
of them. The type of extraction and purification method strongly determines the
structure and bioactivity of fucoidan (Ponce et al. 2003).