ABSTRACT

Marine algae are the most abundant source of nonanimal sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) in nature. In recent years, various SPs isolated from marine algae have attracted much attention in nutraceutical/functional food, cosmetic/cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical applications. SPs include a complex group of macromolecules with a wide range of important biological activities such as antioxidant, anticoagulant, anticancer, antiviral, and anti-inammation (Costa et al. 2010). SPs are commonly found in three major groups of marine algae, red algae (Rhodophyceae), brown algae (Phaeophyceae), and green algae (Chlorophyceae). The major SPs of red algae are galactans commercially known as agar and carrageenan, and those of brown algae are fucans, including fucoidan, sargassan, ascophyllan, and glucuronoxylofucan. On the other hand, the major SPs of green algae are usually sulfated heteropolysaccharides that contain galactose, xylose, arabinose, mannose, glucuronic acid, or glucose (Jiao et al. 2011). This chapter focuses on SPs derived from marine algae and presents an overview of their biological activities with potential health benets.