The Red Seaweed Gracilaria gracilis as a Multi Products Source

Abstract

In recent years seaweeds have increasingly attracted interest in the search for new drugs and have been shown to be a primary source of bioactive natural compounds and biomaterials. In the present investigation, the biochemical composition of the red seaweed Gracilaria gracilis, collected seasonally in the Lesina Lagoon (Southern Adriatic Sea, Lesina, Italy), was assayed by means of advanced analytical techniques, such as gas-chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and spectrophotometric tests. In particular, analysis of lipids, fatty acids, sterols, proteins, phycobiliproteins and carbohydrates as well as phenolic content, antioxidant and radical scavenging activity were performed. In winter extracts of G. gracilis, a high content of R-phycoerythrin together with other valuable products such as arachidonic acid (PUFA ω-6), proteins and carbohydrates was observed. High antioxidant and radical scavenging activities were also detected in summer extracts of the seaweed together with a high content of total phenols. In conclusion, this study points out the possibility of using Gracilaria gracilis as a multi products source for biotechnological, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications even although more investigations are required for separating, purifying and characterizing these bioactive compounds.

Diversity Investigation of the Seaweeds Growing on the Lebanese Coast

“…Worldwide, there is an increasing importance given to learn more about seaweeds for their diverse biological activities such as antiinflammatory, antimicrobial and anticancer [5,[7][8][9]11,15,[17][18][19][20] and the importance of some species of marine in food diet [9,21,22] as well as their contributionin pharmaceutical, drug development and food processing fields [3,14,20,[23][24][25].…”

“…Many species of marine algae have long been used in food diet and in traditional oriental medicine [9,22,23].…”

“…Polysaccharides (carrageenan, cellulose, agar, gepsin, porphyran, fucoidan, alginic acid), carotenoids (fucoxanthin, zeaxanthin, violaxanthin, -carotene, anthocyanins), fatty acids, amino acids, some trace or oligoelements (K, Ca, Mg, Na, Si, Sr, P, Fe,…) are among these substances [3,9,22,[24][25][26][27][28].…”

Fatty acid composition from the marine red algae Pterocladiella capillacea (S. G. Gmelin) Santelices & Hommersand 1997 and Osmundaria obtusiloba (C. Agardh) R. E. Norris 1991 and its antioxidant activity

“…Marine algae live in complex habitats and are subjected to wide fluctuations in temperature, salinity, light, nutrients, contaminants like heavy metals etc., and thus naturally forced to adapt to changing environmental conditions, producing a wide range of primary and secondary metabolites that cannot be found in other organism from terrestrial environments (Francavilla et al 2013, Lordan et al 2011, Rodrigues et al 2015.…”

“…Marine algae produce many biologically active phytochemical constituents such as volatile organic compounds, carotenoids, terpenes, chlorophylls, phycobilins, polysaccharides, vitamins, steroids, phenolic compounds, alkaloids and fatty acids, making them increasingly interesting for commercial purposes (Fernandes et al 2014, Francavilla et al 2013, Hafting et al 2015.…”