Fucus vesiculosus as resource for medical applications -chances and obstacles-

Black, W. A. P., Dewar, E. T., and Woodward, F. N. (1952). Manufacture of algal chemicals. IV. Laboratory-scale isolation of fucoidin from brown marine algae. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 3, 122-9. Cumashi, A., Ushakova, N. A., Preobrazhenskaya, M. E., D'Incecco, A., Piccoli, A., Totani, L., Tinari, N., Morozevich, G. E., Berman, A. E., Bilan, M. I., Usov, A. I., Ustyuzhanina, N. E., Grachev, A. A., Sanderson, C. J., Kelly, M., Rabinovich, G. A., Iacobelli, S., and Nifantiev, N. E. (2007). A comparative study of the anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, antiangiogenic, and antiadhesive activities of nine different fucoidans from brown seaweeds. Glycobiology 17, 541-552. Holtkamp, A. D., Kelly, S., Ulber, R., Lang, S. (2009). Fucoidans and fucoidanases – focus on techniques for molecular structure elucidation and modification of marine polysaccharides. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. (to be published) Fucus vesiculosus is a ubiquitous macro algae native to the German coast. Fucoidan, a sulphated polysaccharide extracted from this algae, is a (1→3)linked poly-α-fucopyranoside consisting of various monosaccharides with varying composition due to seasonal differences. It exhibits numerous bioactivities (Cumashi et al., 2007). Aims/Studies on: The characteristics of F. vesiculosus from the North Sea coast Antitumoral activity Anticoagulant activity Antiviral activity Introduction