ABSTRACT
Fucoidan is considered as “gold from the sea” and it has enormous application in the field of biological and biomedical applications. Fucoidan can be converted into nanoparticles, hydrogels, nanofibers, microsphere and scaffolds for tissue engineering, drug delivery and wound dressing applications. Fucoidan structure and activity can vary depending on the brown seaweed source and geographical area. Sulfated polysaccharides are commonly found in structural elements of plants and animals. Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide and is mainly composed of a rich amount of fucose moieties with differently substituted other sugar units and it is usually found in brown seaweeds. Fucoidan can be extracted from seaweed using different approaches and is one of the most widely used techniques to isolate fucoidan through ethanol precipitation. Biomedical research on fucoidan is increasingly focused on tissue engineering, drug delivery and biosensor application due to its unique properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradable nature and biological activities.
