Institute of Bioprocess Engineering, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 49, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Department of Pharmacognosy, Tanta University, College of Pharmacy, El-Guish Street, Tanta 31527, Egypt.
Mar Drugs. 2020 Nov 19;18(11):571. doi: 10.3390/md18110571.
Fucoidans are marine sulfated biopolysaccharides that have heterogenous and complicated chemical structures. Various sugar monomers, glycosidic linkages, molecular masses, branching sites, and sulfate ester pattern and content are involved within their backbones. Additionally, sources, downstream processes, and geographical and seasonal factors show potential effects on fucoidan structural characteristics. These characteristics are documented to be highly related to fucoidan potential activities. Therefore, numerous chemical qualitative and quantitative determinations and structural elucidation methods are conducted to characterize fucoidans regarding their physicochemical and chemical features. Characterization of fucoidan polymers is considered a bottleneck for further biological and industrial applications. Consequently, the obtained results may be related to different activities, which could be improved afterward by further functional modifications. The current article highlights the different spectrometric and nonspectrometric methods applied for the characterization of native fucoidans, including degree of purity, sugar monomeric composition, sulfation pattern and content, molecular mass, and glycosidic linkages.
褐藻胶是一种海洋硫酸化生物多糖，具有复杂多样的化学结构。在其主链中涉及各种糖单体、糖苷键、分子量、支化位点以及硫酸酯基的模式和含量。此外，来源、下游加工过程、地理和季节因素都可能对褐藻胶的结构特征产生影响。这些特征与褐藻胶的潜在活性密切相关。因此，人们采用了许多化学定性和定量测定以及结构解析方法，以研究褐藻胶的理化和化学特性。褐藻胶聚合物的特性被认为是进一步生物学和工业应用的瓶颈。因此，获得的结果可能与不同的活性有关，这些活性可以通过进一步的功能修饰来提高。本文重点介绍了用于天然褐藻胶特性描述的不同光谱和非光谱方法，包括纯度、单糖组成、硫酸化模式和含量、分子量和糖苷键。
