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Scholars Week 2017 - Poster Presentations

May 18th, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Determination of fucoidan, alginate, and protein concentrations in Determination of fucoidan, alginate, and protein concentrations in

edible seaweeds from the Salish Sea Region edible seaweeds from the Salish Sea Region

Katherine Berreman Western Washington University

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Berreman, Katherine, "Determination of fucoidan, alginate, and protein concentrations in edible seaweeds from the Salish Sea Region" (2017). Scholars Week. 37. https://cedar.wwu.edu/scholwk/2017/Day_two/37

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Objective

In the past, the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest relied on a variety of edible seaweeds for food. There is now renewed interest in incorporating traditional foods back into their diet in order to reduce heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other health issues related to the Western commodity food diet.

Although seaweeds may contain contaminants, as observed in past studies, they also have numerous health benefits that may outweigh the detrimental effects of the contaminants. To better understand the health benefits of consuming these seaweeds, I began to quantify the concentrations of fucoidanand alginate in the same seaweed samples used in the contaminant project.

Introduction to Fucoidan and Alginate

Seaweeds are a good source of vitamins and minerals and contain high concentrations of polysaccharides. Both fucoidan and alginate polysaccharides are composed of sulfated L-fucosewith glycosidic bonds that make for easy extraction.

Previous research on fucoidans and alginates has shown that they possess diverse health benefits:

Methods

Fucoidan and Alginate Assays:

• Grind freeze dried samples

• Remove lipid-soluble materials from ground algae with methanol:dichloromethane:waterand centrifuge after overnight extraction

• Hydrolyze and extract polysaccharides with 0.03 M HCl in a 90°C water bath

• Precipitate and wash polysaccharides with ethanol and centrifuge

• Separate alginate and fucoidan polysaccharides with CaCl and centrifuge

• Dry pellets retrieved from extractions in microcentrifuge tubes in an oven overnight

Results

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank:

• Dr. Kathy Van Alstyne, for proposing this study and advising me through out the project.

• Jennifer Hahn for providing all the samples and images.

• the Undergraduate Research Committee for helping fund this project.

• Anti-allergic• Antioxidant • Anti-inflammatory• Anti-tumor• Anti-obesity

• Anti-coagulant• Anti-viral• Anti-hepatopathy• Anti-uropathy• Anti-renalpathy

effects

Determination of fucoidan and alginate concentrations in edible

seaweeds from the Salish Sea RegionKatherine Berreman

Shannon Point Marine Center – Huxley College of Environment

Figure 1. Songhees Nation members sampling Bull Whip Kelp, Nereocystisluetkeana, for Salish Seaweed Contaminant study.

Figure 2. Extraction of polysaccharides prior to centrifuge with ethanol.

Figure 7. Removing lipid-soluble materials from ground algae with methanol:dichloromethane:water.

Figure 8. Extracting pellet with 20 mL of acetone two times and centrifuging.

Figure 6. Alginate dried overnight in an oven at 50°C.

Hypothesis

We predict that alginate and fucoidanconcentrations will be lower in seaweed samples collected from historically contaminated sights.

Figure 3. Fucus distinchus in the field.

Figure 5. Jennifer Hahn in a sea kayak collecting Bull Whip Kelp.

Figure 4. Map of Salish Sea collection sites.

Figure 9. Comparison between no known source of contamination (NKS) and known source (KS) of contamination sites of mean alginate percentages derived from different seaweed species samples including Fucus distichus (FD), Fucus spiralis (FS), and Nereocystis luetkeana (NL) collected at 45 different sites. T-test results revealed no significance difference between species or sites.

Figure 10. Comparison between no known source of contamination (NKS) and known source (KS) of contamination sites of mean fucoidanpercentages derived from different seaweed species samples including Fucus distichus (FD), Fucus spiralis (FS), and Nereocystisluetkeana (NL) collected at 45 different sites. T-test results revealed no significance difference between species or sites.

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