Utilization of Seaweed Derived Ingredients as Potential Antioxidants and Functional Ingredients in the Food Industry: An Overview

Abstract

Recently, a great deal of interest has been developed to isolate novel bioactive compounds from marine resources because of their numerous health beneficial effects. Among marine resources, marine algae are valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive compounds with potential to be used against artificial food ingredients. This mini-review focuses on seaweed-derived bioactive compounds such as phlorotannins, sulfated polysaccharides, carotenoid pigments, and fucosterol with their potential antioxidant effect in the food industry as functional ingredients.

Full text

Food Sci. Biotechnol. 20(6): 1461-1466 (2011)
DOI 10.1007/s10068-011-0202-7
Utilization of Seaweed Derived Ingredients as Potential Antioxidants
and Functional Ingredients in the Food Industry: An Overview
Yong-Xin Li and Se-Kwon Kim
Received: 20 May 2011 / Revised: 23 August 2011 / Accepted: 28 September 2011 / Published Online: 31 December 2011
© KoSFoST and Springer 2011
Abstract Recently, a great deal of interest has been
developed to isolate novel bioactive compounds from
marine resources because of their numerous health
beneficial effects. Among marine resources, marine algae
are valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive
compounds with potential to be used against artificial food
ingredients. This mini-review focuses on seaweed-derived
bioactive compounds such as phlorotannins, sulfated
polysaccharides, carotenoid pigments, and fucosterol with
their potential antioxidant effect in the food industry as
functional ingredients.
Keywords: fucosterol, fucoxanthin, phlorotannin, seaweed,
sulfated polysaccharides
Introduction
Nowadays, much attention has been paid by the consumers
towards natural bioactive compounds as functional ingredients
in the diet. Especially, bioactive compounds derived from
marine organisms have been served as a rich source of
health-promoting components. Among marine organisms,
edible seaweeds have been identified as an under-exploited
plant resource and a source of functional foods with health
benefit biological activities (Table 1). In addition, they
have long been used in food diets as well as traditional
remedies in Asian countries mainly China, Japan, and
Korea. The total global seaweed production in the year
2005 was around 1.3 million ton by capture and 14.8
million ton by aquaculture (1). Recently, their importance
as a source of novel bioactive substances is growing
rapidly and researchers have revealed that marine algal
originated compounds exhibit various biological activities
(2-6). Edible marine algae, sometimes referred to seaweeds,
have attracted a special interest as good sources of nutrients
and one particular interesting feature is their richness in
phlorotannins, sulfated polysaccharides (SPs), carotenoid
pigments, phytosterols, and bioactive peptides. Even though,
seaweed salads have been supplied as diet food recently,
the significance that salads have on human health is much
not known. In addition, as the meaning about the existence
of physiological active substances contained in seaweeds
get clearer and clearer with the development of analysis
techniques, the applicability of these materials are considered
in various angles. For example, the beneficial effects of
marine macro algae-derived bioactive substances extend
from their eco-biotechnological to the industrial applications.
Hence, the utilization of marine macro algal-derived
substances as potential biological and industrial products
should be well established worldwide to gain various
Se-Kwon Kim ( )
Marine Bioprocess Research Center, Pukyong National University, Busan
608-737, Korea
Tel: +82-51-629-7097; Fax: +82-51-629-7099
E-mail: sknkim@pknu.ac.kr
Yong-Xin Li, Se-Kwon Kim
Marine Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Pukyong
National University, Busan 608-737, Korea
MINI REVIEW
Table 1. Some potential health beneficial biological activities of
seaweeds reported in vitro and in vivo
Biological activity in vitro or in vivo
Antioxidant in vitro
Anticancer in vivo
Antityrosinase or skin whitening in vitro and vivo
Anti-Alzheimer’s in vitro
Anti-HIV in vitro
Anti-herpes simplex virus in vivo
Antidiabetic in vitro and in vivo
Anti-hair loss in vivo
Enzyme inhibitory in vitro

1462 Li and Kim
health and medical benefits.
The deterioration of some foods has been identified due
to oxidation of lipids or rancidity and formation of
undesirable secondary lipid peroxidation products. Lipid
oxidation by reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as
superoxide anion, hydroxyl radicals, and hydrogen peroxide
(H2O2) also causes a decrease in nutritional value of lipid
foods, and affect their safety and appearance. Furthermore,
uncontrolled production of free radicals that attack
macromolecules such as membrane lipids, proteins, and
DNA is leading to many health disorders such as cancer,
diabetes mellitus, neurodegenerative, and inflammatory
diseases with severe tissue injuries in the human body.
There are many synthetic commercial antioxidants such as
butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole
(BHA), tert-butylhydro-quinone (TBHQ), and propyl
gallate (PG) have been used to retard the oxidation and
peroxidation processes in the food and pharmaceutical
industries. However, the use of these synthetic antioxidants
must be under strict regulation due to potential health
hazards (7,8). Hence, the search for natural antioxidants as
safe alternatives from natural resources such as seaweeds is
important in the food industry. This chapter focuses on
potential application of seaweed-derived novel antioxidants
such as phlorotannins, sulfated polysaccharides, carotenoids,
and fucosterols in the food industry.
Functional Ingredients from Seaweeds and Their
Potential Antioxidant Effect
Phlorotannins Marine brown algae accumulate a variety
of phloroglucinol-based polyphenols, as phlorotannins.
These pholorotannins consist of phloroglucinol units linked
to each other in various ways, and are of wide occurrence
amongst marine brown algae (9). Many researchers have
shown that phlorotannins (Fig. 1) derived from marine
brown algae have strong antioxidant activities on free
radicals (10-13). The antioxidant activity can be the result
of specific scavenging of radicals formed during peroxidation,
scavenging of oxygen-containing compounds, or metal-
chelating ability. According to the significant results of
total antioxidant activity compared to tocopherol as
positive control in the lineloic acid model system, the
phlorotannins presented a greatly interesting potential
against DPPH, hydroxyl, superoxide, and peroxyl radicals
in vitro, using electron spin resonance (ESR) technique
(14). The various phlorotannins can be observed that able
to overcome the sensitivity problem inherent in the
detection of endogenous radicals in biological systems.
Furthermore, several phlorotannins which purified from
brown seaweeds such as Ecklonia cava, E. kurome, Eisenia
bicyclis, and Hizikia fuciformis are responsible for antioxidant
activities and shown protective effects against H2O2-
induced cell damage (15,16). In addition, eckol, phloro-
fucofuroeckol A, dieckol, and 8,8'-bieckol have shown a
potent inhibition of phospholipid peroxidation at 1 µM in a
liposome system and these phlorotannins have significant
radical scavenging activities against superoxide and DPPH
radicals effectively compare to ascorbic acid and α-
tocopherol (13). Hence, phlorotannins can be used as
potential antioxidants in the food industry.
Sulfated polysaccharides Edible marine algae have
attracted a special interest as good sources of nutrients and
one particular interesting feature is their richness in
sulfated polysaccharides (SPs), the uses of which span
Fig. 1. Some antioxidative phlorotannins derived from marine algae (A) phloroglucinol, (B) eckol, and (C) dieckol.

Seaweed-derived Antioxidants in the Food Industry 1463
from food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries to
microbiology and biotechnology (17). These chemically
anionic SPs polymers are widespread not only in marine
algae but also occur in animals such as mammals and
invertebrates (18,19). Marine algae are the most important
source of non-animal SPs and the chemical structure of
these polymers varies according to the algal species. The
amount of SPs present is found to be differing according to
the 3 major divisions of marine algae, Chlorophyceae
(green algae), Rhodophyceae (red algae), and Phaeophyceae
(brown algae). The major SPs found in marine algae (Fig.
2) include fucoidan and laminarans of brown algae,
carrageenan of red algae, and ulvan of green algae.
Antioxidant activity of SPs depends on their structural
features such as degree of sulfating, molecular weight, type
of the major sugar, and glycosidic branching (20,21). For
example, low molecular weight SPs have shown potent
antioxidant activity than high molecular weight SPs (22).
The rationale for this is low molecular weight SPs may
incorporate into the cells more efficiently and donate
proton effectively compared to high molecular weight SPs.
Furthermore, SPs from marine algae are known to be
important free radical scavengers and antioxidants for the
prevention of oxidative damage, which is an important
contributor in carcinogenesis. Sea weed-derived SPs prove
to be one of the useful candidates in the search of effective,
non-toxic substances with potential antioxidant activity.
Moreover, SPs are byproducts in the preparation of
alginates from edible brown seaweeds and could be used as
a rich source of natural antioxidants with potential
application in the food industry.
Carotenoids Carotenoids are a family of pigmented
compounds which are synthesized by plants, algae, fungi,
and microorganisms, but not animals. These carotenoid
pigments are thought to be responsible for the beneficial
properties in preventing human diseases including
cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and other chronic diseases.
The beneficial effects of carotenoids are thought to be due
to their role as antioxidants. The antioxidant actions of
carotenoids are based on their singlet oxygen quenching
properties and their ability to trap free radicals, which
mainly depends on the number of conjugated double bonds
of the molecule and carotenoid end groups or the nature of
constituents in carotenoids containing cyclic end groups
(23). In this regard, fucoxanthin and astaxanthin were
known to be major ingredients of marine algal carotenoids
(Fig. 3), which show strong antioxidant activity due to
quenching singlet oxygen and scavenging free radicals.
Furthermore, cytoprotective effect of fucoxanthin, which
isolated from brown algae Sargassum siliquastrum, against
H2O2-induced cell damage has reported (24). The results
reported in their study show that fucoxanthin can effectively
inhibit intracellular ROS formation, DNA damage, and
apoptosis induced by H2O2. Noticeably, fucoxanthin also
exhibited a strong enhance of cell viability against H2O2
induced oxidative damage (24). Moreover, this fucoxanthin
was investigated and confirmed the protective effect on
UV-B induced cell injury in human fibroblast via
significantly decreasing intracellular ROS and increasing
Fig. 2. Antioxidative sulfated polysaccharides derived from marine algae (A) fucoidan, (B) carrageenan, and (C) ulvan.

1464 Li and Kim
cell survival rate at dose-dependent manner (25). In addition
to fucoxanthin, astaxanthin has also known for its versatile
antioxidant property. The higher antioxidant activity of
astaxanthin than other carotenoids was explained to be due
to the presence of the hydroxyl and keto endings on each
ionone ring. Furthermore, astaxanthin is effective as α-
tocopherol in inhibiting free radical-initiated lipid peroxidation
in rat liver microsomes and is 100 times higher than α-
tocopherol in protecting rat mitochondria against Fe2+-
catalyzed lipid peroxidation in vivo and in vitro (26).
Overall, these results indicate that fucoxanthin and
astaxanthin can be used as a source of natural antioxidants
and ingredients in functional food and cosmetic agents
related to the prevention and control oxidative stress.
Fucosterol All eukaryotes universally contain large
amounts (20-30%) of higher sterols in their plasma
membranes. Different eukaryotic kingdoms have different
higher sterols for their membrane reinforcement, such as
cholesterol in animals, ergosterol in fungi, and phytosterols
in plants. Phytosterols (plant sterols) are triterpenes and
most of them contain 28 or 29 carbons and 1 or 2 carbon-
carbon double bonds, typically one in the sterol nucleus
and sometimes a second in the alkyl side chain (27).
Phytosterols have received much attention in the last few
years because of their cholesterol-lowering properties.
Fucosterol (Fig. 4), a phytosterol found in brown seaweeds
are well recognized for its health beneficial biological
activities such as antioxidative, cholesterol reducing, and
antidiabetic activities (28-30). Fucosterol obtained from the
n-hexane fraction of Pelvetia siliquosa (Phaeophyceae)
effective against free radical and CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity
in vivo (28). Moreover, fucosterol elevates the activities of
free radical scavenging enzymes such as superoxide dismutase,
catalase, and glutathione peroxydase (28). In addition,
saringosterol, a derivative of fucosterol, discovered in several
brown algae (Phaeophyceae), such as Lessonia nigrescens
and Sargassum ringgoldianum, has been shown to inhibit
the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (31). Furthermore,
after the incorporation of ‘wakame’ (Undaria pinnatifida,
Pheophyceae) with pasta have increased the value of the
food product by enhancing antioxidant activity and sensory
qualities due to fucoxanthin and fucosterol. Therefore, the
development of functional food product based on seaweed
as an ingredient that will have functional compounds like
fucoxanthin and fucosterol apart from good fatty acid and
amino acid composition is promising (32).
Bioavailability of Seaweed-derived Ingredients
Until now, the bioavailability of marine algal-derived
polyphenolic like compounds, phlorotannins have been not
yet researched. The bioavailability of plant polyphenols
Fig. 3. Antioxidative carotenoids derived from marine algae (A) fucoxanthin and (B) astaxanthin.
Fig. 4. Fucosterol.

Seaweed-derived Antioxidants in the Food Industry 1465
have been studied in vivo (33-35). According to their studies,
around 70% out of consumed polyphenolics amount has
been shown potent bioavailability. However, most of the
bioavailability studies of polyphenolics have been observed
in mouse model systems. Therefore, further research studies
are needed in order to investigate their bioavailability in
human subjects.
Researches on the metabolism and bioavailability of
seaweed-derived SPs and fucosterol are under investigating
and the bioavailability via skin penetration of SPs from the
other sources across skin has been reported (36).
Various dietary factors have an effect on the bioavailability
of carotenoids. Most of researches of bioavailability of
carotenoids have been done on vegetable derived carotenoids.
According to Van het Hof et al. (37), the bioavailability of
β-carotene from vegetables in particular has been shown to
low (14% from mixed vegetables) compared with that of
purified β-carotene added to salad dressing (relative
bioavailability of 67% from mixed vegetables). However,
the metabolism and bioavailability of marine algae derived
carotenoids such as astaxanthin and fucoxanthin are under
investigation.
Conclusion
Seaweed-derived functional ingredients play a vital role in
human health and nutrition. Furthermore, increasing
consumer knowledge of the link between diet and health
has raised the awareness and demand for novel functional
food ingredients and nutraceuticals. Hence, radical scavenging
compounds such as phlorotannins, SPs, fucosterol, and
carotenoid pigments including fucoxanthin and astaxanthin
from marine algae and their byproducts can be used
indirectly as functional ingredients to reduce most of
chronic diseases in human body. In addition, antioxidants
from natural sources like seaweeds as an ingredient to
increase the quality and shelf-life of foods considerably
enhances the consumer preference. Collectively, the wide
range of biological activities associated with the antioxidative
ingredients which derived from seaweeds have potential to
expand their health beneficial value not only in the food
industry but also in the pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical
industries.
Acknowledgments This study was supported by a grant
from the Marine Bioprocess Research Center of the Marine
Bio 21 Project funded by the Ministry of Land, Transport,
and Maritime, Republic of Korea.
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