Biological activity in Macrocystis pyrifera from Argentina: sodium alginate, fucoidan and laminaran. III. Antiviral activity

Of the marine algal polysaccharides, only agar and carrageenan, both extracted from Rhodophyta, have been reported to inhibit the growth of viruses belonging to Orthomyxoviridae (influenza), Paramyxoviridae (mumps), Herpesviridae (herpes simplex), Picornaviridae (polio) and Togaviridae (Dengue) (Green & Woolley, 1947; Gerber et al., 1958; Takemoto & Liebhaber, 1961; Takemoto & Fabisch, 1964; Schulze, 1964; Takemoto & Spicer, 1965; Germanov & Sokolov, 1969; Ehresmann et al., 1979; Alarcon et al., 1984).