Characterisation of fucoidan extracted from Malaysian Sargassum binderi

Abstract Fucoidan is a sulphated polysaccharide that consists mainly of fucose, normally found in brown seaweeds. In this study, fucoidan was extracted from Sargassum binderi (F sar ) from Malaysia and subsequently characterised. The chemical characteristics of F sar were found to be different than those of commercial food grade fucoidan (F ysk ) and those of previously studied fucoidans. NMR analysis proposed that the main structure of F sar is →3)fuc-2-OSO 3 − (1 → 3)fuc(1→. The molecular weight (47.87 kDa) and degree of sulphation (0.20) of F sar were higher than those of F ysk , at 27.98 kDa and 0.15, respectively. However, F sar ’s polydispersity index (1.12) and fucose content (34.50%) were lower than those of F ysk , at 1.88 and 43.30%, respectively. Both F sar and F ys k showed similar thermo-gravimetric properties with four mass losses, amorphous in nature and negative optical rotations. Results show that F sar has fundamental characteristics of fucoidan with different structural conformation i.e. variation in glycosidic linkages and sulphate group orientation.