145. Fucoidin. Part I. The isolation and purification of fucoidin from brown seaweeds

Algal Walls — Composition and Biosynthesis

“…This was never achieved completely and even in the so-called pure sample from Himanthalia lorea small proportions of galactose, xylose, and uronic acid persisted (PERCIVAL and Ross 1950).…”

The polysaccharides of green, red and brown seaweeds: Their basic structure, biosynthesis and function

“…In the early studies extensive purification was carried out in an attempt to isolate a "fucan" containing only fucose residues. This was never achieved completely and even in the so-called purest samples small proportions of galactose, xylose and uronic acid persisted (Percival & Ross, 1950). I think that the material finally separated by these workers was one fraction of this polydisperse family of molecules.…”

Relationship between antithrombotic activities of fucans and their structure

“…Fucans extracted from the cell walls of marine brown algae were previously reported to have anticoagulant activity as measured in several different assays [Percival and Ross, 1950;Nishino et al, 1989;BoissonVidal et al, 1991;Chaubet et al, 2000]. They are different in chemical composition from heparin and are the most widely studied of all the sulfated polysaccharides of vegetable origin.…”

“…Their structure varies from species to species. Fucoidans extracted from Fucus vesiculosus (Fucales, Fucaceae) have been reported to be composed of α-(1→2) [Percival and Ross, 1950] or α-(1→3) [Patankar et al, 1993] linked units of 4 sulfuryl-l-fucose (with branching sulfate or additional monosaccharides at free positions). However, it has recently been shown that they are very similar to those of Ascophyllum nodosum formed by α-(1→3) and α-(1→4) fucosyl units, mainly sulfated at positions 2 and 3 [Chevolot et al, 1999;Pereira et al, 1999].…”