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Antioxidant activities of sulfated polysaccharides from brown and red seaweeds

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Abstract

The in vitro antioxidant activities of the following six sulfated polysaccharides were investigated: iota, kappa and lambda carrageenans, which are widely used in the food industry, fucoidan (homofucan) from the edible seaweed Fucus vesiculosus and fucans (heterofucans) F0.5 and F1.1 from the seaweed Padina gymnospora. With respect to the inhibition of superoxide radical formation, fucoidan had an IC50 (the half maximal inhibitory concentration) of 0.058 mg·mL−1, while the IC50 for the kappa, iota and lambda carrageenans were 0.112, 0.332 and 0.046 mg·mL−1, respectively. All of the samples had an inhibitory effect on the formation of hydroxyl radicals. The results of peroxidation tests showed that fucoidan had an IC50 of 1.250 mg·mL−1 and that the kappa, iota and lambda carrageenans had an IC50 of 2.753 and 2.338 and 0.323 mg·mL−1, respectively. Fucan fractions showed low antioxidant activity relative to fucoidan. These results clearly indicate the beneficial effect of algal polysaccharides as antioxidants.

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Abbreviations

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

TBA:

2-Thiobarbituric acid

NADH:

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

F0.5:

Fucan precipitated with 0.5 vol. of acetone

F1.1:

Fucan precipitated with 1.1 vol. of acetone

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Acknowledgements

We thank Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq) no. 475867/2003-3 and (CAPES) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Bioquímica, Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Av. Senador Salgado Filho, 3000, Bairro Lagoa Nova-Campus, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte (RN), 59000, Brazil

    Micheline Cristiane Rocha de Souza, Cybelle Teixeira Marques, Hugo Alexandre Oliveira Rocha & Edda Lisboa Leite

  2. Departamento de Botânica, Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil

    Celina Maria Guerra Dore

  3. Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil

    Fernando Roberto Ferreira da Silva

Authors
  1. Micheline Cristiane Rocha de Souza
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  2. Cybelle Teixeira Marques
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  3. Celina Maria Guerra Dore
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  4. Fernando Roberto Ferreira da Silva
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  5. Hugo Alexandre Oliveira Rocha
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  6. Edda Lisboa Leite
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Correspondence to Edda Lisboa Leite.

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Rocha de Souza, M.C., Marques, C.T., Guerra Dore, C.M. et al. Antioxidant activities of sulfated polysaccharides from brown and red seaweeds. J Appl Phycol 19, 153–160 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-006-9121-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-006-9121-z

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